Sustainable Energy Transitions and Regional Growth Paths in the North Sea Basin: A Comparative analysis of North East Scotland and Southern Denmark

可再生能源技术已成为国家和全球政策框架的核心组成部分，被誉为全球气候危机的关键解决方案和绿色增长的源泉。然而，相对而言，对与可再生能源转型相关的经济地理学，以及它们在发展新的区域增长路径中的作用的研究却很少。该项目促进了进化经济地理学（EEG）和可持续转型研究（STR）中关于可持续能源转型背景下地方和区域路径创建过程和区域经济分支的日益激烈的辩论。它将通过对苏格兰东北部和丹麦南部区域增长路径的概念性案例研究分析来调查三个RQs:(1)国家、超国家和区域政策和制度框架如何在两个地区内实现和限制能源转型进程；(2)区域能源公司和组织如何促进能源转型并创造新的增长路径；(3)这两个地区在北海盆地新兴能源生产网络中的位置。该项目得到了合作伙伴埃斯比约港的支持，并将通过问卷调查、半结构化访谈和文献分析相结合的方式进行研究。这些方法将建立在强调空间分异和历史偶然性重要性的批判现实主义框架之上。本研究的成果将有助于EEG和能源转型研究以及英国和丹麦日益增长的绿色增长政策架构。

Renewable energy technologies have become a central componentof national and global policy frameworks, heralded as a key solutionto the global climate crisis and as a source of green growth. Yet there is comparatively little research on the economic geographiesassociated with the transition to renewable energy, and their role inthe development of novel regional growth paths. This projectcontributes to growing debates within evolutionary economicgeography (EEG) and sustainable transitions research (STR) onprocesses of local and regional path creation and regional economicbranching within the context of sustainable energy transitions. It willinvestigate three RQs via a conceptually-engaged case-studyanalysis of the regional growth paths of North East Scotland andSouthern Denmark: (1) how national, supra-national and regionalpolicy and institutional frameworks have enabled and constrainedenergy transition processes within the two regions; (2) how regionalenergy firms and organisations are fostering energy transitions andcreating new growth paths; and (3) how the two regions are situatedin emerging energy production networks in the North Sea basin.This project is supported by a collaborative partner - Port Esbjerg -and will be researched through a combination of questionnaires,semi-structured interviews, and documentary analysis. Thesemethods will be grounded in a critical realist framework thatemphasises the importance of spatial differentiation and historicalcontingency. Outputs of this study will contribute to EEG and STRenergy transition research and increasing green growth policyarchitecture in the UK and Denmark.