What role for microgeneration in a shift to a low carbon domestic energy sector in the UK?
What role for microgeneration in a shift to a low carbon domestic energy sector in the UK?
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DOI：
10.1007/s12053-011-9107-9
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发表时间：
2011-01
影响因子：
3.1
通讯作者：
Noam Bergman;N. Eyre
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Noam Bergman;N. Eyre
在英国，家庭能源使用占二氧化碳排放量的四分之一以上。传统的节能方法着眼于直接减排，并建议绝缘和效率比微型发电更具成本效益。然而，微型发电具有间接的“软”效益，可以在减排方面发挥重要作用。目前在英国的微型发电的吸收率很低，有各种障碍，经济，技术，文化，行为和制度，无论是吸收和最大限度地节省能源和排放，一旦安装。仅靠补贴和传播信息并不能保证最大化的吸收，即使成功，这也不足以最大化储蓄。该行业专注于最大化销售，没有任何激励措施来确保最佳安装和使用;住户无法获得最佳信息，用户行为也无法最大限度地节省能源和排放。这与国内能源使用中更广泛的社会技术“锁定”状态有关;个人行为与能源消费之间缺乏联系，更不用说全球气候变化了。这表明，需要进行重大的文化行为转变，以减少家庭的能源/排放。转型理论和战略利基管理提供了对可能的系统性变化的见解，并为未来的政策提供了合适的框架，例如支持各种技术和社会方面的激进创新利基。如果使用得当，微型发电有可能在这种转变中发挥作用，提高人们的认识和能源素养，并使人们能够作为能源生产者和消费者认真参与能源辩论。这种更深刻的理解和更高的责任感对于转向自下而上的减排行为改变和更好地接受自上而下的节能政策措施至关重要，这是新的国内能源模式的一部分。对政策的影响是，以及支持的技术，它需要支持现有的利基和开发新的利基实验。政策需要考虑如何促进赋权和责任，支持甚至发展新的能源部门模式;这将涉及一系列利益攸关方和多个治理层面，而不仅仅是国家奖励计划。
Domestic energy use accounts for more than a quarter of CO2emissions in the UK. Traditional approaches to energy reduction look at direct emissions savings, and recommend insulation and efficiency as more cost-effective than microgeneration. However, microgeneration has indirect, ‘soft’ benefits and could play a significant role in emissions reduction. Current uptake of microgeneration in the UK is low, with various barriers—economic, technical, cultural, behavioural and institutional—both to uptake and to maximising energy and emissions savings once installed. Subsidies and spreading information alone do not guarantee maximising uptake, and even if successful, this is not enough to maximise savings. The industry focuses on maximising sales, with no incentives to ensure best installations and use; householders do not have access to the best information, and user behaviour does not maximise energy and emission savings. This is related to a broader state of socio-technical ‘lock-in’ in domestic energy use; there’s a lack of connection between personal behaviour and energy consumption, let alone global climate change. This suggests that a major cultural–behavioural shift is needed to reduce energy/emissions in the home. Transition theory and strategic niche management provide insights into possible systemic change and a suitable framework for future policies, such as supporting a variety of radically innovative niches, both technological and social. Microgeneration, properly employed, has the potential to play a part in such a transition by increasing awareness and energy literacy and empowering people to seriously engage in energy debates as producers, as well as consumers, of energy. This deeper understanding and heightened responsibility are crucial in a shift toward bottom-up emission-reducing behaviour change and better acceptance of top-down energy-saving policy measures, as part of a new domestic energy paradigm. The implications for policy are that, as well as supporting the technologies, it needs to support existing niches and to develop new niche experiments. Policy needs to consider how to promote empowerment and responsibility and support or even develop new energy sector models; this will involve a range of stakeholders and multiple governance levels, not just national incentive schemes.