Papers by Anna Harnmeijer
Energy Policy, Nov 1, 2021
Abstract Cities as large centres of energy demand and population are important spatially and mate... more Abstract Cities as large centres of energy demand and population are important spatially and materially in a renewable energy transition. This study draws on available literature on material dimensions, energy decentralization, and regional approaches to provide a conceptual framework to analyse emerging city renewable energy transition plans for their material- and place-based actor scalar strategies. This framework outlines how the increase in renewable energy provided to cities results in new locations of productivity, interscalar relationships between new and centralized actors, and socio-economic outcomes. We use this to analyse 47 ambitious renewable energy transition plans in densely populated cities. Empirically, this study confirms that, for the most part, regions are important emerging actors in the decentralization of energy systems in a renewable energy transition; that city renewable energy transitions involve the forging of new economic relationships between cities and neighbouring communities and regions, and, as the community energy literature emphasises, that the involvement of a wide range of civic and local actors is important in shaping renewable energy transitions for cities. Further research can investigate how the institutional context is shaping these distinct actor material strategies and emerging interscalar relationships across regions. The socio-economic outcomes, particularly as they relate to new economic relationships between cities and the surrounding region and the re-spatialization of productivity and benefits, should also be examined.
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2021
Dissertationes Forestales, 2018
This dissertation explores the governance, local impacts and costs of community-owned renewable e... more This dissertation explores the governance, local impacts and costs of community-owned renewable energy (CRE). The objective is to understand if and in what context collective local ownership models represent a feasible and effective means to operationalising a more 'sustainable development' in the renewable energy sector and beyond. The articles draw on a range of fields, from energy governance and project economics to impact evaluation. Specific methodologies used are systematic literature review, discourse analysis, historical institutional analysis and risk-extended net present valuation. Unique contributions of this work are a meta-level understanding of the community energy sector in the UK and an understanding of its emergence in context of technological and institutional change. In addition, it provides an explicit assessment of Quality of Evidence problems in this subfield of energy and social science research, placing it firmly in the context of current literature and methods in project economics and impact evaluation. Findings show that ownership patterns in the energy sector are precarious and subject to changing narratives that emerge in response to domestic socioeconomic and political dilemma's, exogenous shocks, and emerging economic schools of thought. CRE projects have the potential to generate a variety of positive local impacts that vary depending on the motivation and management of projects and project revenues. Under certain conditions CRE can empower community organisations to address systemic socioeconomic problems in the public domain. Finally, in a competitive market setting and where CRE is implemented by newly-established grassroots organisations, projects face a range of risks that commercial projects do not, and that erode their financial viability. As such, the development and expansion of community renewable energy as a substantial proportion of the energy sector requires policy makers to assign it special status and provide policy support on the basis of its local social, economic and environmental benefits. Policy support for community renewable energy requires a willingness to integrate energy and social policy domains.
Urjaa Samadhan is a collaborative project that commenced in April 2014, and aspires to contribute... more Urjaa Samadhan is a collaborative project that commenced in April 2014, and aspires to contribute to the resilience of rural offgrid renewable energy ecosystems in Orissa, India. This paper aims to summarise the delivery rather than research aspects. Broadly speaking, Urjaa Samadhan aims to empower communities in Orissa to take control and ownership of renewables infrastructure by leveraging the latent potential of local and regional technical and supply chain capacity. It seeks to do this by facilitating engagement between end-users on the one hand, and relevant ‘providers’ – parts and service suppliers and NGO's – on the other. Specifically, our project seeks to pilot a unified messaging platform service with a web-map interface designed to achieve a step change in end-user – provider engagement in the fledgling off-grid renewables sphere in Orissa. The Urjaa Samadhan Gateway will be designed to facilitate user requests and supplier provision for parts and services, and will a...
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2021
This editorial for the Special Issue entitled 'Energy Decentralisation-Institutional Perspectives... more This editorial for the Special Issue entitled 'Energy Decentralisation-Institutional Perspectives' in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews contrasts and compares thirteen research and review articles submitted over the last year, each with a specific regional or thematic focus. The contributions examine decentralisation, its impacts and/or institutional preconditions in the United States,
New Zealand sociology, Dec 1, 2020
Contents • Introduction: Mutuality inside energy technology markets • Historical development of c... more Contents • Introduction: Mutuality inside energy technology markets • Historical development of community versus commercial renewable energy in the UK since 1870 Growth and characterisation Institutional change following shifts in narratives dominating energy governance Comparison with countries leading in community energy • Conclusions: Institutional preconditions for the emergence and widespread manifestation of mutuality in energy markets Based on: Harnmeijer A. (in press). A Short History of Community Energy in the UK, In: Handbook on Energy Transition and Participation, Holstenkamp L. and Radtke J. (Eds), Springer Verlag Wiesbaden.
The clean-tech transition has come hand in hand with market and resource differentiation patterns... more The clean-tech transition has come hand in hand with market and resource differentiation patterns that have created opportunities for heightened engagement of citizens in heat and power generation, potentially emancipating them from their roles as captive consumers (van Vliet, 2005). New opportunities for diverse and civic ownership models are made possible by distributed renewable generation technologies and their ability to be widely integrated into the power network as a result of advances in network management and control (Catney et al., 2014; Johnson & Hall, 2014; Lehtonen & Nye, 2009; Morris, 2013; Walker & Cass, 2007). This chapter maps out the development of ‘community energy’ in the United Kingdom, defined as collective and citizen- led heat and power generation projects that are owned and managed by for- or non-profit organisations operating across a geographically defined population (Doci, Vasileiadou, & Petersen, 2015; Ruggiero, Onkila, & Kuittinen, 2014; Scottish Govern...
This study places barriers to community renewable energy deployment in a broader framework of Soc... more This study places barriers to community renewable energy deployment in a broader framework of Social Movement theory, in which community renewables deployment is conceptualized as a form of associative democracy. Drawing on qualitative and anecdotal accounts, interviews and summary reviews, key determinants for successful implementation of community energy initiatives are identified and operationalized. Based on a Scotland-wide survey of community-led renewable energy projects, a competing risk regression is used to estimate the cumulative probability of project completion conditional on technical, organizational and socio-political covariates. While a UK-wide analysis would be necessary to substantiate the findings, the initial results suggest that regional education levels, technology type and organizational land assets significantly influence the likelihood of project completion. No evidence is found for the influence of socio-political variables such as social cohesion or the le...
Despite being a relatively young phenomenon, Scottish ‘community energy’ (‘CE’) has experienced... more Despite being a relatively young phenomenon, Scottish ‘community energy’ (‘CE’) has experienced a rapid growth in capacity and diversity over the past decade, and is receiving increasing international attention. To a large extent, the Scottish CE sector has evolved independently from the commercial sector. The recent upsurge in interest and delivery of community-commercial partnership projects may suggest that this is changing. As a nascent sector, ‘learning-by-doing’-type effects amongst practitioners and policymakers have steadily driven overall CE project costs down to the point that they are now comparable to commercial costs, although the former continue to show distinctly higher variability. Despite the overall cost convergence, a significant difference prevails at a crucial stage in the development pipeline: nominal costs, timelines and risk associated with progressing projects towards planning remain significantly higher for community projects. Given that projects ca...
This chapter describes the UK renewable energy policy reforms implemented in 2015, placing these ... more This chapter describes the UK renewable energy policy reforms implemented in 2015, placing these events in historical and European context and analysing the discourse and underlying rationale from which they emerged. Presenting a detailed overview of reforms implemented around renewable energy support mechanisms, we examine the implications for different technologies and scales of deployment, focussing on renewable electricity. Drawing on reports and statements issued by the newly elected 2015 government and analysing reforms in the context of UK’s broader energy and climate mitigation policy, we find that historical and deep-rooted party political narratives around renewable energy have remained virtually unchanged since debates leading up to the 1990 Electricity Act. Finally, looking forward, we explore the prospects for Scottish Government public support and for ‘subsidy-free renewable energy’.
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Papers by Anna Harnmeijer