Energy Research & Social Science最新文献

{"title":"The eternal promise of carbon capture, utilisation and storage: Is there a business case?","authors":"Katariina Buure","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104308","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104308","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies are often described as essential tools for meeting global climate goals and are regularly included in international climate strategies. However, their large-scale implementation remains limited, raising questions about their practical viability. This research examines how CCUS technologies and their commercial promise have evolved over time. To trace changing narratives and expectations, publicly available scientific and technical reports published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the International Energy Agency between 1990 and 2023 were analysed. In addition, practical insights were gathered through semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from academia and business to assess current views on CCUS deployment and its commercial potential. Findings indicate that while interest in CCUS technologies has grown over time, actual deployment continues to lag far behind the levels required to meet earlier projections and climate targets. Financial and regulatory challenges remain persistent obstacles. By combining document analysis with stakeholder insights, this research contributes to the understanding of the structural and discursive factors that shape the persistent gap between CCUS’s theoretical promise and its real-world outcomes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104308"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144916531","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":"The legacy of the cod fishery collapse: Understanding wind energy acceptance in Newfoundland through energy justice and place","authors":"Jessica L. Hogan","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104274","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104274","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As renewable energy grows globally, understanding community acceptance of wind energy projects is crucial for ensuring a fair and equitable energy future. Procedural and distributional justice have been widely identified as central to shaping community acceptance. However, there are increasing calls to examine how local historical context plays a role not only in influencing acceptance but also in how residents rationalise their justice considerations. Drawing on energy justice and place attachment/disruption theory, this study investigates how historical experiences with resource development influence perceptions of fairness and acceptance of onshore wind energy in Newfoundland, Canada. Based on semi-structured interviews (<em>n</em> = 22) and surveys (<em>n</em> = 146) with residents living near existing wind projects, this study finds high acceptance of current projects (76–100 %), but a distinct pattern of ‘sceptical optimism’ toward future developments. On one hand, residents' attachment to their once-thriving communities and positive experiences with current wind projects contribute to support for future development. On the other, residents' optimism is tempered by hard-learned lessons from the previous resource developments. The findings underscore the need to integrate recognition justice and local historical context more fully into energy justice and acceptance frameworks, highlighting how past (in)justices inform both community support and the evolving understanding of fairness of energy transitions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104274"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144916529","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":"Technology, people, and place in microgrids: Addressing perceptions and engagement challenges for a rural Australian town","authors":"Farzan Tahir ,&nbsp;Scott Dwyer ,&nbsp;Scott Kelly ,&nbsp;Franziska Mey","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104305","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104305","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Microgrids are emerging as a promising technological solution for providing reliable, sustainable, and cost-effective electricity to regional and remote communities. However, successful microgrid implementation necessitates not only technical and economic feasibility but also social acceptance within the communities where they are deployed. This paper presents a case study of a microgrid feasibility project in Victoria, Australia, employing a mixed-methods design to analyse community perceptions of microgrids and the role of engagement strategies in promoting community acceptance or leading to conflicts. Drawing on empirical findings from in-depth interviews (<em>n</em> = 13) and a community survey (<em>n</em> = 62), this research investigates the challenges and lessons associated with engaging a local community when investigating the feasibility of a proposed microgrid. The findings highlight the significant influence of place-based factors and community dynamics on project perception and social acceptance, emphasising the need for tailored engagement strategies that foster collaboration and maximise community participation. While best practices of community engagement do not guarantee community acceptance, this research demonstrates that proactive engagement and transparent communication can effectively address concerns and cultivate support for microgrid initiatives.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104305"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144916530","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":"How do policies drive China's hydrogen energy industrialization? A comparative analysis of policy across central and regional governments (2016–2024)","authors":"Yongzhang Liu ,&nbsp;Kaishan Huang ,&nbsp;Qinxu Huang ,&nbsp;Quande Qin","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104311","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104311","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Hydrogen energy, pivotal in achieving China's “Dual Carbon” target, has garnered substantial policy attention in recent years. Despite the positive development of the hydrogen energy industry driven by policies, the dynamic implementation process of hydrogen energy policies in the interaction between central and local policies is not yet clear. This research addresses the critical gap in understanding how multilevel governance shapes energy transition implementation by analyzing the interplay between national strategies and regional adaptation. In this study, we construct a three-dimensional policy analysis framework (policy instruments-policy objectives-industry chain segments) from the perspective of intergovernmental relations to comprehensively sort out and comparatively analyze the policies of China's central and regional governments from 2016 to 2024. Through systematic examination of 125 national and 449 regional policies, focusing on Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as representative regions, our findings reveal the following key points: (1) China's high degree of centralization effectively guarantees the execution of top-down prioritized strategies for hydrogen energy industrialization. (2) Regions at the forefront of hydrogen energy development have adjusted and formulated distinctive hydrogen energy policy layouts based on their own unique resource endowments. (3) A pattern of competition and cooperation prevails among and within regions, balancing efficiency and synergy in the development of hydrogen energy. These findings demonstrate how China's governance model creates a unique approach that enables rapid policy deployment while accommodating regional diversity and innovation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104311"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144907494","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":"Energy at the fair: County fair sponsorship patterns from the energy sector in the United States","authors":"Ana Martinez,&nbsp;Pranav Moudgalya,&nbsp;Dustin Tingley","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104245","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104245","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>County fairs are a common feature in the American social landscape. As with many local social institutions, companies and other organizations have a chance to sponsor county fairs. These sponsorships help put on the fairs and give organizations an opportunity to advertise and signal to the local community their involvement. In this paper, we review the small literature on the motivations and effects of sponsorships and then turn to a set of empirical questions. First, we examine the distribution of sponsors from the energy sector and compare the sponsorship patterns of traditional fossil fuel companies and those of firms working in the renewable energy sector. Our sample of US counties covers counties with active fossil and or renewable energy sectors. We also collected all counties in several states and all state-wide fairs. Second, we use a national survey to examine perceptions of sponsorships and support for companies that do or do not sponsor county fairs. Finally, we leave the fair and catalog and compare how large fossil fuel and renewable energy firms display community engagement efforts on their websites to understand how communities may perceive companies, as well as to provide a lens on the extent to which these companies prioritize community-level investments. By and large, we find that renewable energy has a decidedly lower sponsorship and community engagement presence compared to fossil fuel companies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104245"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144916532","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":"Household carbon caps and tariffs: A living lab experiment","authors":"Leandra Scharnhorst ,&nbsp;Thorben Sandmeier ,&nbsp;Max Kleinebrahm ,&nbsp;Wolf Fichtner","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104294","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104294","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Transnational efforts to combat climate change are intensifying, with Germany targeting net-zero emissions by 2045. The residential sector is a significant CO₂ emitter but lacks direct mitigation strategies, such as personal carbon budgeting and trading, which are common in industry. Although theoretical research on personal carbon trading exists, real-world household-level studies are scarce. This study addresses that gap by examining the implementation of household carbon caps and tariffs in a living lab experiment. Conducted in the Energy Smart Home Lab, the experiment involved three households under weekly carbon caps, with the option to purchase additional allowances under two different tariffs. In two households, photovoltaic feed-in was accounted for to incentivize load shifting and maximize self-consumption. Additionally, participants were encouraged through economic and non-economic incentives to adhere to a 2 kW power limit during simulated grid congestion. Real-time energy consumption monitoring and weekly interviews provided insights into how participants responded to the imposed carbon limits and power restrictions. Essential household activities, such as cooking and heating, occasionally took precedence over economic motivations, leading to breaches of the power limit. As weekly carbon emission caps were reduced by 45 % to 75 % by the end of the intervention, participants faced substantial challenges, compounded by unmodifiable appliance emissions and external pressures like exams. Although limited in sample size, this study is the first to combine carbon caps, tariffs, real-time feedback, and photovoltaic-based incentives in a living lab setting.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104294"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144907495","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":"Modeling stakeholder interactions for post-disaster electric power restoration: A multi-agent and game-theoretic approach","authors":"Rui Shao ,&nbsp;Chao Fan","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104307","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104307","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Efficient post-disaster electric power restoration, under resource constraints, is essential for economic continuity and recovery. While existing studies emphasize the technical feasibility of power restoration, they frequently overlook how households' responses and utility companies' strategic priorities either reinforce or obstruct utility-led restoration efforts. To this end, this study presents a multi-agent simulation approach that integrates hazard modeling, grid fragility, household-level tolerance regarding outages, and a stochastic game-theoretic decision process to model stakeholder interactions and the effects on the efficiency of utility-led electric power restoration. The approach evaluates utilities' daily decisions in allocating labor resources for repair and recovery between economic and residential needs, alongside households' adaptation and feedback, which, in turn, affect the consumption and workforce availability. The approach is validated with field data collected from Hurricane Harvey in Harris County, Texas in 2017. The results show that household decision-making can act as a powerful feedback mechanism, shaping restoration trajectories and the ultimate outcomes of economic recovery. Specifically, a flexible “conditional” cooperation model, where households adjust their behaviors based on the utility's actions, proved most effective in the process of electric power restoration process. Paired with residential-first repair, the model yields a 65.6 % power restoration and 25.9 % economic recovery within 30 days. In contrast, a business-focused strategy, which prioritize electric restoration in industrial sectors, is often combined with low household cooperation and yields significantly worse outcomes, with only 31.8 % power restoration and 7.2 % economic recovery. Our results consistently show that prioritizing residential areas is optimal for both power restoration and long-term economic recovery. This socio-technical framework offers policymakers, utility managers, and community stakeholders a robust and replicable tool to anticipate the cascading consequences of their decisions, enhancing the energy system resilience and effectiveness in disaster recovery strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104307"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144907271","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":"Energy policy-making in the European Union between past and present","authors":"Samuele Lo Piano ,&nbsp;Andrea Saltelli","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104296","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104296","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We use instruments from sociology of quantification to investigate a persistent paradox: the problematic technical quality of modelling studies when these are aimed at policy analysis. We review new and old instances of this paradox, focusing specifically on two energy assessment studies: one performed in the eighties and one recent. We apply sensitivity auditing, an existing checklist for the quality of quantification at the science-policy interface, which appraises the overall model framing process and application. The old energy assessment case is a study that was the subject of a pointed criticism by sociologist of science and technology Brian Wynne in a paper published in 1984. The recent impact analysis is from the European Commission, aimed to inform the selection of greenhouse-gases emission targets for 2040 in the European Union. The similarities in the shortcomings identified by Wynne and those we see in the European Commission one using sensitivity auditing seem to indicate that the lesson from that controversy was not learned, or that at a more fundamental level the purpose of these relevant institutional analyses is not to trace a path to a sustainable energy future but to reassure and confirm present policy agendas and visions, along the lines of a policy-based evidence strategy well known to sociologists of quantification. We investigate how modelling plays a key role in facilitating these analytic distortions, and conclude with some suggestions for progress, anchored to the double nature—technical and normative—of quantification and on the need for more analytic lenses to be systematically deployed when reading a policy assessment that builds on models.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104296"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144895897","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":"“Do you think that coal will finish?”: The (Im)possibilities of living with and without coal in a central Indian coalfield","authors":"Radhika Krishnan ,&nbsp;Patrik Oskarsson ,&nbsp;Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104304","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104304","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article seeks to understand how experiences of coal extraction and use shape local perspectives on energy transitions. It does this by exploring community struggles over land and labour in India's largest coalfield Korba in Chhattisgarh state. While the Indian government has announced that the country will have net zero emissions by 2070, continuing coal mine expansions built on the dispossession of rural poor and indigenous groups dramatically shape lives, economies and aspirations, and with them expectations around a potential transition away from coal. At the moment coal provides stability and continuity in the context of a depressed agricultural sector and limited non-farm employment opportunities. The coal sector is in this manner a source of hope and aspirations for many, while simultaneously creating enormous social and ecological disruptions. In the article we place specific focus on the interlinked roles of land and labour in the production of fossil-free futures situated within agrarian relations. Long-term resistance to land acquisition for coal mining is in recent years accompanied by the emergence of new relationships that coal communities are forging around land as a transactional asset, to be bartered for mining company jobs, or simply used as a speculative asset which may yield future pay-off as mining continues to expand. Based on a close reading of everyday micro-level negotiations, this paper argues that the possibilities for justice in a post-coal future is rendered complicated by existing coal economy dependencies and narrow conceptions of compensation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104304"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144902248","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":"Navigating solar energy transitions in oil-rich countries: A network-based study of collaborative governance in Iran","authors":"Ali Asghar Sadabadi ,&nbsp;Zohreh Rahimirad ,&nbsp;Narges Shahi ,&nbsp;Iman Nikijoo ,&nbsp;Fatemeh Jafarian","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104283","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104283","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Increased energy demand, global warming, and the economic ramifications of fossil fuel consumption have propelled governments toward achieving net-zero emission targets. In this context, renewable energy (RE) development is paramount, particularly in oil-rich nations within the Middle East and North Africa region. This research focuses on Iran, examining collaborative governance as a pivotal driver in the transition to solar energy (SE). The energy transition is an inherently complex and multifaceted process, fraught with numerous challenges, necessitating effective stakeholder collaboration. This study employs two-mode social network analysis (SNA) to analyze the structure of collaborative governance in Iran's SE transition and to link existing obstacles to relevant stakeholders. Data were meticulously gathered through a comprehensive literature review, semi-structured interviews, expert surveys, and document analysis. The resulting network comprises 39 stakeholders across 11 categories, 16 key barriers within 5 classifications, and 92 interconnections among them. Furthermore, 12 fundamental challenges to collaborative governance were identified, indicative of institutional weaknesses and policy-level inconsistencies. Utilizing interactive models—specifically, challenge–stakeholder and challenge–barrier models—the role of each stakeholder in addressing challenges and their impact on existing barriers was thoroughly investigated. Findings reveal challenges such as power imbalance, lack of cooperation, fragmented rules and regulations across levels of governance, lack of coordination and institutional alignment, and the impact of administrative corruption on resource allocation in the SE transition. This research provides actionable insights for policymakers to design targeted interventions that strengthen collaborative governance and facilitate a more effective transition to SE in Iran.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104283"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144895896","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}