Energy Research & Social Science最新文献

{"title":"From linesmen to local leaders: How does informal governance influence India's electricity policy outcomes?","authors":"Kanika Balani ,&nbsp;Bharat Sharma ,&nbsp;Shalu Agrawal","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104056","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104056","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Global progress toward universal electricity access (Goal 7) underpins the success of several other sustainable development goals (SDGs), given the role of electricity in powering lives, livelihoods, businesses, and community services. In India, the world's most populous country, a suite of policies, programmes and regulatory reforms have focussed on bridging the electricity access gap with significant success. However, many regions in India continue to grapple with an unreliable and poor-quality electricity supply, despite repeated reform measures. This is symptomatic of a vicious cycle of poor revenue recovery by electricity utilities, inadequate investment in infrastructure, electricity theft, and poor payment discipline among electricity users. Breaking this cycle requires understanding how policies function in practice, and the underlying causes of deviation from policy goals.</div><div>The literature points to a strong influence of the political economy on electricity sector governance. This study explores how informal governance and local socio-economic factors influence policy outcomes concerning electricity access in India. To do so, we use the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework to analyse the interactions among key local actors in Malihabad, an electricity distribution region in the state of Uttar Pradesh.</div><div>Our research indicates a complex layering of institutional rules that shape the decisions of local actors, providing both constraints and opportunities, and allowing for discretionary powers to the local actors such as the linesmen, village heads, and outsourced agents of the distribution company (discom), beyond formal roles. Further, the interplay of socio-economic realities, local social relations, and institutional conditions affect governance outcomes, often deviating from the intended policy goals. We argue that informal governance, rather than being viewed as a problem to solve, should be understood as a valuable resource that can inform and guide policy decisions for more effective outcomes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"124 ","pages":"Article 104056"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143747699","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From investment to net benefits: A review of guidelines and methodologies for cost–benefit analysis in the electricity sector","authors":"Jose Angel Leiva Vilaplana ,&nbsp;Guangya Yang ,&nbsp;Emmanuel Ackom","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104052","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104052","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The electricity sector is transforming to integrate renewable energy sources while ensuring grid quality, efficiency, and reliability. Such a transformation demands major investments from both private and public stakeholders. Economic appraisal tools such as cost–benefit analysis (CBA) have become increasingly relevant in identifying investments that optimize financial and social net benefits. Despite this, many CBA applications in the electricity sector, such as those for transmission and distribution infrastructure, tend to prioritize financial metrics and single-criterion evaluations, often neglecting broader social and environmental considerations. This highlights the need for a more inclusive approach to addressing these limitations. To this end, this paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature on CBA as applied to electricity infrastructure appraisals. First, the review examines various facets of CBA methodology, including its key steps, scope, standing, metrics, models, and approaches for addressing uncertainty. Second, this study analyzes relevant CBA guidelines employed to assess electricity projects’ social costs and benefits across the entire value chain, encompassing power generation, transmission, distribution, and end-use. Third, the paper highlights challenges and barriers within CBA guidelines, noting significant variations in their development and applicability across electricity domains and regions. The review categorizes these barriers into CBA into methodological, regulatory, and domain-specific barriers. Advancing CBA requires standardizing scope, unveiling cost and benefit causal chains, enhancing uncertainty handling, and leveraging synergies across regions to bridge gaps between theory and practice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"124 ","pages":"Article 104052"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143747987","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A perspective on emerging policy and economics research priorities for enabling low-carbon trucking","authors":"Rubal Dua,&nbsp;Saif Almutairi","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104025","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104025","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Trucking plays a crucial role in sustaining economic activity worldwide, yet its current path of carbon emissions is out of sync with the net-zero goals set by governments globally. As a result, identifying key energy economic and policy research priorities for low-carbon trucking has become increasingly important. In this perspective, we tackle this need with a four-part approach: (i) identifying pressing issues highlighted in the news media; (ii) formulating feasible and novel economic and policy research challenges that address these contemporary concerns; (iii) cross-referencing these research challenges with academic literature to confirm their relevance and refining them as needed; and (iv) prioritizing the identified research challenges through consultations with a diverse group of transport experts specializing in fuels, policy, technology, and infrastructure. Our findings reveal seven key themes, each with its own set of research challenges. Among these, the expert prioritized policy and economic research challenges include — (i) high-power charging and battery swapping for battery electric trucks, focusing on market preferences, standardization (chargers vs. batteries), national strategies, and business models; (ii) optimal allocation of government subsidies between deployment of zero tailpipe emission trucks, including battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks, versus refueling/recharging infrastructure deployment; and (iii) a comparative cost-benefit analysis of the EU's tailpipe versus lifecycle carbon emissions regulations for new trucks. These priorities can guide both industry and academic research toward generating practical recommendations for industry stakeholders and policymakers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"124 ","pages":"Article 104025"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738670","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Greener horizons: Economic freedom as a catalyst for the global energy transition","authors":"Abebe Hailemariam ,&nbsp;Kris Ivanovski","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104058","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104058","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Major advanced and emerging economies are setting targets to achieve an ambitious net zero emission target plan by 2050 to address climate change and ensure sustainable development. However, achieving this transition requires significant structural changes not only in energy mixes but also in the quality of economic and political institutions. In this paper, we investigate how economic freedom – as a key measure of institutional quality – influences the momentum of energy transition. To do so, we utilise panel data consisting of 35 advanced economies and 32 emerging and developing economies for the period from 2000 to 2020. Employing a series of panel data estimation techniques that address the common empirical issues, including endogeneity and heterogeneity, we find that countries with greater economic freedom tend to outperform in transitioning to a low-carbon economy. The findings suggest that promoting economic freedom is crucial as it allows policymakers to utilise incentive schemes based on market-based policies, including carbon pricing and R&amp;D subsidies for renewable energy developments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"124 ","pages":"Article 104058"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738672","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Beyond economies of scale: Learning from construction cost overrun risks and time delays in global energy infrastructure projects","authors":"Benjamin K. Sovacool ,&nbsp;Hanee Ryu","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104057","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104057","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Every single energy infrastructure project today was once on paper only, and imagined only as a future project, one that had to be financed, planned for, approved, and constructed. One critical element of energy infrastructure at this project planning stage is construction cost overruns and time delays. Using an original dataset 50 % larger than those in the previous literature, this study examines the cost overrun risks facing 662 energy infrastructure projects across 83 countries built between 1936 and 2024, covering $1.358 trillion in investment and a total capacity of &gt;400 Gigawatts. We find that more than three-fifths of the projects experienced cost overruns, with these overruns being particularly prominent in projects exceeding 1561 MW in capacity. Positively, the escalation rate in cost overruns has been declining since 1976. However, the patterns of cost overruns varied by fuel source. For instance, nuclear and fossil thermal projects exhibited higher cost escalation rates over time, whereas solar power projects showed a decline. Critically, both hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects exhibited significant time and cost overruns, casting doubt on their ability to rapidly be scaled up to address climate change or meet energy and climate policy priorities. We draw from these insights to chart future research gaps as well as salient policy recommendations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"123 ","pages":"Article 104057"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143746545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"What is nuclear cultural heritage? Developing an analytical framework","authors":"Melanie Mbah ,&nbsp;Viktoria Noka ,&nbsp;Alexandra Lampke ,&nbsp;Ryan Kelly ,&nbsp;Sophie Kuppler","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104050","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104050","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Nuclear cultural heritage (NCH) is a relatively new approach. It was introduced by Rindzevičiūtė (2019) and is being discussed internationally with reference to its contribution to knowledge preservation of nuclear objects and practices as well as safety aspects, especially in the context of nuclear waste governance. The latter includes knowledge transfer to future generations in the sense that knowledge of nuclear objects and practices might be further developed and could be applied as well in future. This is particularly relevant as nuclear technology is hazardous to the living environment and endures for very long periods of time. The great impacts on landscapes and the living environment are demonstrated by experiences with nuclear accidents, nuclear weapon tests, the storage and disposal of nuclear wastes, and uranium mining. One reason for the upcoming interest in NCH is the decommissioning of nuclear power plants and siting and construction of nuclear waste repositories. With this article, we aim to provide an analytical framework for understanding, identifying and studying NCH. Firstly, we discuss the specificities of NCH in reference to cultural heritage and overlaps with or added values of related approaches. This includes energy cultures, sociotechnical and spatial imaginaries as well as concepts related to place and remembrance. We then specify four key elements as part of a broader conceptualization of NCH: temporality, spatiality, (im)materiality, and institutionalization. These are central to the analytical framework that is presented, in a final step, with notes on possible methodological approaches.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"124 ","pages":"Article 104050"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143747717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Green energy in grey areas: The financial and policy challenges of Kazakhstan's energy transition","authors":"Nurkhat Zhakiyev ,&nbsp;Dana Burkhanova ,&nbsp;Anel Nurkanat ,&nbsp;Shynar Zhussipkaliyeva ,&nbsp;Ainur Sospanova ,&nbsp;Ayagoz Khamzina","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104046","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104046","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Renewable energy development in Kazakhstan faces significant challenges, including outdated infrastructure, underdeveloped local production, and regulatory uncertainties. Despite the government's efforts to promote green finance policies, systemic barriers persist across financial, technological, policy, and social dimensions. This study aims to a) identify and categorize the principal barriers and risks, b) assess and rank these barriers from multiple expert perspectives, and c) propose strategic policy measures to facilitate sustainable growth in the country's renewable energy sector.</div><div>A mixed-method approach was employed, combining semi-structured expert interviews and an expert panel survey. The findings from the interviews informed the survey design, ensuring relevance. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests were used to compare expert perceptions across different experience levels and sectors.</div><div>The analysis revealed five major barriers - low tariffs for fossil-fuel electricity, underdeveloped local production, outdated infrastructure, limited experience in localization, and lack of public interest in energy-efficient technologies. Experts' perspectives varied by experience level: early-career professionals focused on micro-level issues: local production and public awareness, while senior experts emphasized macro-level challenges such as inadequate integration planning. Sector-specific assessments further highlighted technology and regulatory gaps. A risk heatmap showcased regulatory uncertainty, technological lag, and high capital expenditures as the most pressing concerns for investors. The findings reveal the need for comprehensive policy reforms, including clear strategic roadmaps, government-backed financial instruments, and stronger alignment of stakeholders to mitigate market and operational risks.</div><div>The findings provide valuable insights for other fossil-fuel-dependent economies facing similar challenges in transitioning to renewable energy, using Kazakhstan's experience as an important reference point.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"124 ","pages":"Article 104046"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Double energy vulnerabilities in France: When residential choices lock households into patterns of energy dependence","authors":"Lise Desvallées,&nbsp;Julien Haine","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104037","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104037","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper focuses on households' choice of a new home to study how patterns of energy dependence are being embedded in everyday lives in the wake of the 2022 energy crisis in Europe. It highlights inequalities in exposure to and protection from rising energy prices, both in domestic and transport energy needs.</div><div>Drawing upon conceptual work around double energy vulnerability and residential mobility and a large survey of households that moved in the South-West of France, we analyse the socioeconomic determinants of energy drivers in the choice of a new home. We elaborate a typology of households based on the importance of energy efficiency and mobility costs. The findings reveal that energy concerns, including efficiency and proximity, play a crucial role in residential decision-making. We show how life cycles are determinant in households' preoccupations with energy, but also how income, wealth and homeownership shape residential choices and strategies, determining control over energy costs. Indeed, lower-income households are more associated with a greater concern with mobility and energy efficiency, while wealthier households can offset rising costs with thermal retrofits and mitigate the financial burden of distance.</div><div>We argue for expanding double energy vulnerability approaches to considering, within a wider social spectrum, both the adaptive capacity of middle- and high-income households, and the determining role of housing costs. These results highlight the need for policies addressing both energy affordability and sustainable consumption, balancing energy retrofits with measures to control housing costs and prevent increased consumption among wealthier households.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"123 ","pages":"Article 104037"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143739859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring the degrowth movement: A survey of conceptualisations, strategies, and tactics","authors":"Nick Fitzpatrick ,&nbsp;Dennis Eversberg ,&nbsp;Matthias Schmelzer","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104045","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104045","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Degrowth – the downscaling of production and consumption to reduce ecological footprints, planned democratically in a way that is equitable while securing wellbeing – is emerging as an alternative strategy for social-ecological transformation. While research on degrowth as a scientific concept is burgeoning, there are few studies exploring the strategies and tactics that may be necessary for social movements to achieve social-ecological transformation. To stimulate this dialogue, we conduct a survey and statistical analysis of degrowth scholar-activists regarding diverging conceptualisations of degrowth, strategic orientations, and tactical preferences using correlation, principal component, and cluster analysis (<em>n</em> = 399). The results reveal how different interpretations of degrowth align with strategic orientations and support for implementing various direct-action tactics. Our findings point to the potential for the degrowth movement to develop a strategy of unarmed resistance that combines nonviolent resistance with anti-property actions. To explore the diversity within the degrowth movement, we identify four currents: antagonistic anarchism, systemic utopianism, environmental pragmatism, and ecological limitarianism. The paper concludes by reflecting on the preanalytic vision of degrowth, the strategic implications of pluralism, and how these strategic orientations and tactical preferences could fit together.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"124 ","pages":"Article 104045"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Rethinking the energy transition: Sufficiency and the French strategy","authors":"Bruno Bourliaguet","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104055","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104055","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><em>La sobriété énergétique</em> has emerged as a central theme in France's energy policy in recent years. Energy sufficiency is becoming the fourth pillar of the French energy transition, alongside energy efficiency, nuclear power generation and renewable energy. But what drives French enthusiasm for energy sufficiency—a concept that hasn't gained as much traction elsewhere in Europe or North America? This article will explore how the concept of energy sufficiency has taken such an eminent place in the public debate in France. Three reasons will be examined: 1) this is not the first time the French have used sufficiency, 2) sufficiency is in keeping with the actions of a centralizing and interventionist state responding to the last European energy crisis, and 3) sufficiency corresponds to an inflection in terms of long-term energy strategy, which we will consider as constrained by circumstance but also pragmatic.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"124 ","pages":"Article 104055"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}