Transcript SCUPAD - University of Groningen

7/21/2015
The relevance of spatial planning;
towards energylandscapes
Dr. Christian Zuidema
University of Groningen | Faculty of Spatial Sciences
Department of Spatial planning & the environment
7/21/2015
Today:
1| The problem of an energy transition
2| A role for spatial planners
3| The Energy Landscape as a vehicle
4| Conclusions
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1| The problem of an Energy Transition
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Towards sustainable energy systems?
› Obama; Oval Office Speech 15-06-2010;
“For decades, we have known the days of cheap and
easily accessible oil were numbered. For decades,
we’ve talked and talked about the need to end
America’s century-long addiction to fossil fuels. And
for decades, we have failed to act with the sense of
urgency that this challenge requires…
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Towards sustainable energy systems?
› Why is it so difficult?
1| Our high needs for energy
2| Economic Importance
3| Invested power relations
4| Existing investments
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The complexity of an energy transition
› “Problems are a complex web of interrelated actors and
networks, both in a physical, economic, social and
institutional sense.”
› “Apart from limitations to fully oversee and grasp such a
complex web, ownership and power are fragmented,
limiting the capacity of any actor to alter them”
(De Boer & Zuidema 2013)
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Transitions
- Involves processes of self-organisation and co-evolution,
involving the linking of processes of change in various
societal, economic, and technological domains
Transforms a system
from one dynamic
equilibrium to another
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Transitions
- In ‘niches’, at the fringe of the energy system, innovative
(bottom-up) energy initiatives experiment in relative
isolation and develop through learning-by-doing (Kemp
1998)
- Some ‘niche’ developments can up-scale, for example in
size, span of activities, political influence (Gillespie 2004)
and can combine.
- The up-scaling of such ‘niche’ developments based on
renewables can create a new development pathway for the
energy system (cf. Kemp et al. 2007, Simmie 2012).
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Transition Management?
›Learning-by-doing; uncertainty forces us to learn from the
past and present and to experiment in niches
›Be reflexive and both flexible & robust: avoid rigidness and
allow for local specificieties, keep options open and don’t
through away the old before the new is clear
›Involve multiple levels: linking societal debates & values
(macro), government regimes & routines (meso), people &
projects (micro)
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Transition Management?
But this remains fairly abstract… what can we do in practice?
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2| A Role for Spatial Planners
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Energy Landscapes
Pre-historic (Generation Zero)
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Energy Landscapes
Pre-historic (Generation Zero)
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Energy Landscapes
First Generation Energy Landscape
- Produce where consumed
- Space is decisive
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Energy Landscapes
Second Generation Energy Landscape
- Tesla: AC
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Energy Landscapes
Second Generation Energy Landscape
- Fossil fuel
- Energy is ‘Footloose’
- Space is Implicit
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Energy Landscapes
Third Generation Energy Landscape?
Energy Transition
Present
Past
Future
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Consequences of a Third Generation
- Due to lower power densities we need much more space
- ‘The’ answer is not there yet; try many different options (do
what we can)
- Renewables are typically more visible (above the ground)
- Energy security is an issue; wind, sun, biomass…
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A role for Spatial Planning?
Designing a new ‘energy landscape’
Interdependence between energy and the physical/spatial
landscape:
• What are the local possibilities?
• Integration in Physical Landscape
• Linking Production and Consumption
| Allocation
| NIMBY
| Regional development
| Robust networks
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A role for Spatial Planning?
Designing a new ‘energy landscape’
Interdependence between energy and the social/institutional
landscape:
• Connecting Interests and Stakeholders
• Enabling and Stimulating Innovation
• Constraining Negative Impacts
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A role for Spatial Planning?
We can see the notion of an ‘Energy Landscape’ as a
vehicle for the energy transition:
-By accepting that the energy transition may well
materialise in interdependence with the physical and
socio-economic landscape
-Energy initiatives are then integrated in their area-based
physical and socio-economic context, where these areabased practices are ‘niches’ in terms of transition
management
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3| The Energy Landscape as a vehicle
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Substantive Guidance
1|
Area-based energy initiatives tend to become less
vulnerable and more viable when integrated in their
surrounding landscape.
Windenergy ‘Veenkoloniën’
N33 / Borger-Odoorn
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Substantive Guidance
1|
Area-based energy initiatives tend to become less
vulnerable and more viable when integrated in their
surrounding landscape.
Haarlose veld
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Substantive Guidance
2|
Area-based integration provides a direction for the
up-scaling of energy initiatives through clustering
together and by producing diversified and robust
regional or national energy systems.
Clustering (Ring Parkstad)
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Substantive Guidance
2|
Area-based integration provides a direction for the
up-scaling of energy initiatives through clustering
together and by producing diversified and robust
regional or national energy systems.
Differentiation
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Substantive Guidance
3|
Area-based systems can help produce synergies
between different socio-economic developments,
allowing for the kind of co-evolution that can make
the energy transition a real societal transition.
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Procedural Guidance
Challenges:
› Physically there is a need to respond to local
specificities, such as embedding energy in their local
landscapes and decentralised infrastructure, and to
integrate local initiatives in national systems
› Social-institutional there is a need for new partnership
arrangements and financial contracts that emerge
around local initiatives
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Procedural Guidance
›So not just top-down as happens in Dutch context;
›National government, supporting agencies and large
companies make big projects and business cases…
›What about the more than 300 local initiatives and their
governance … (Hieropgewekt 2012)
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Procedural Guidance
A need for both centralised and decentralised governance
› Centralized: tax regimes, energy security, differentiation on
higher scales -> setting conditions
› Decentralized: benefit from proximity of local authorities to
local circumstances, linkages and stakeholder
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4| Conclusions
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Back to Transitions
Self Organisation?
Processes of co-evolution of multiple changes in sociotechnical systems, the economy, our spatial and
institutional landscapes and on multiple levels
Co-evolution is about linkages….
What about physical and
socio-institutional integration?
7/21/2015
Central Conclusion (for now)
Currently, some conflate the idea of a ‘niche’ only with
technological innovation or economic entrepreneurship
However, ‘niches’ also involve the societal, institutional and
spatial innovations that occur around energy initiatives
The image of an integrated energy landscape can be a vehicle
for understanding these innovations, identifying possible
directions they point at and trying to govern them.
7/21/2015
Questions & Discussion