In order to meet its 2050 target of 80% carbon emissions reduction, the UK is facing a challenge of restructuring its energy system, possibly by introducing more decentralised energy (DE) systems.
Following semi-structured interviews, four exemplar international cases have been critiqued in order to investigate the variety and interrelationship of the drivers and barriers involved during their implementation, and then compared with the barriers and drivers that can potentially affect the implementation of similar projects in the UK context. The impacts of the barriers on the outcomes of these projects were evaluated, and recommendations were presented on overcoming these barriers if replicating similar projects in the UK context.
Governance drivers play the most significant role, whereas financial drivers (commonly believed to be crucial), are deemed to play a lesser role. Social, governance and financial barriers rather than technological barriers constitute the central problem areas for the increased adoption of DE. The drivers and barriers experienced in the international cases were similar to those anticipated in the UK. The case studies present a high potential for replication and scaling up in the UK context and demonstrate that the increased implementation of DE systems could also enhance social and governance benefits.
Funding
This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) UK EPSRC CLUES (Challenging Lock-in Through Urban Energy Systems) Project [grant number EP/1002170/1].
History
School
Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
Published in
ENERGY POLICY
Volume
66
Pages
62 - 72 (11)
Citation
CHMUTINA, K. and GOODIER, C.I., 2014. Alternative future energy pathways: assessment of the potential of innovative decentralised energy systems in the UK. Energy Policy, 66, pp. 62 - 72.
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Publication date
2014
Notes
This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Elsevier under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/