Re-Imagining Social Energy Transitions CoLaboratory Publications
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Browsing Re-Imagining Social Energy Transitions CoLaboratory Publications by Subject "demand-side"
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Diffusion of demand-side low-carbon innovations and socio-technical energy system change(Renewable and Sustainable Energy Transition, 2022) Hoicka, Christina E.; Zhao, Yuxu; McMaster, Maria-Louise; Das, RunaTo mitigate climate change in an accelerated time frame, more research is needed to understand how to achieve effective large-scale diffusion of low-carbon innovations. The conceptualization of sectoral socio-technical system transitions requires extending beyond an economic and technological focus, towards a wider system view that combines societal, behavioural, and institutional elements alongside the natural environments and infrastructures. Any socio-technical system reconfiguration will be shaped by the diffusion of multiple innovations. This study employs a novel empirical and quantitative framework that integrates considerations of system actors, behaviours, innovations, and infrastructure simultaneously. Based on a review of socio-technical literature, the framework scores demand-side, low-carbon innovations on a scale from regime reinforcing to disruptive across the dimensions of decarbonization, democratisation and decentralisation. It also scores the innovations according to the policy (economic, regulatory, informational) and legitimacy (actors, discourse) factors that support or inhibit their diffusion. This allows for the investigation of the relationship between the diffusion of innovations and socio-technical energy system change, including whether a relationship exists, its strength, and direction. In analysing 80 innovations that diffused to the demand-side between 1998-2018 in Ontario, Canada, diffusion is found to be negatively correlated with system disruption and decarbonization. Although economic supports tend to be a focus of mainstream policymaking, this study found that economic instruments, legitimacy through discourse, and combined policy and legitimacy supports are important to the systemic diffusion of demand-side low-carbon innovations.Item Methodology to identify demand-side low-carbon innovations and their potential impact on socio-technical energy systems(MethodsX, 2021) Hoicka, Christina E.; Das, Runa D.; Zhao, Yuxu; McMaster, Maria-Louise; Lieu, Jenny; Wyse, SusanThe rapid diffusion of demand-side low-carbon innovations has been identified as a key strategy for maintaining average global temperature rise at or below 1.5 °C. Diffusion research tends to focus on a single sector, or single technology case study, and on a small scope of factors that influence innovation diffusion. This paper describes a novel methodology for identifying multiple demand-side innovations within a specific energy system context and for characterizing their impact on socio-technical energy systems. This research employs several theoretical frameworks that include the Energy Technology Innovation System (ETIS) framework to develop a sample of innovations; the Sustainability Transitions framework to code innovations for their potential to impact the socio-technical system; the energy justice framework to identify the potential of innovations to address aspects of justice; and how characteristics of innovations are relevant to Innovation Adoption. This coding and conceptualization creates the foundation for the future development of quantitative models to empirically assess and quantify the rate of low-carbon innovation diffusion as well as understanding the broader relationship between the diffusion of innovations and socio-technical system change. The three stages of research are: contextualization: surveys and desk research to identify low-carbon innovations across the ETIS; decontextualization: the development of a codebook of variables; and recontextualization: coding the innovations and analysis.