Development of sustainable energy technologies in changing institutional and socio-political contexts: the case of combined heat and power in the UK

The emergence and development of innovative, sustainable ideas and their interaction with incumbent regimes is one of the key focal areas of Transitions Research. While many authors publishing in the field focus on analysing successful transition processes, a smaller group of scholars reviews less successful transitions, aiming to understand the reasons for the partial or complete failure of these processes. In this thesis, the author will follow in the footsteps of the latter group, utilizing two analytical approaches from the broader field of Transitions Studies in order to investigate the case of combined heat and power (CHP) technologies in the United Kingdom. CHP in the UK has been the focus of multiple studies from different viewpoints, using a variety of theories and analytical approaches. The story of CHP has often been conflated with the development of district heating systems although, more recently, scholars have taken a broader perspective on the utilization of CHP technologies. This thesis will attempt to take a holistic approach to the CHP industry, investigating a broad range of CHP application areas. The author will use a two-step analysis, starting with a system-focused technological innovation systems analysis of the CHP industry and then broadening the scope of the enquiry to include a broader context, using niche and regime concepts derived from the Multi-level perspective and Strategic Niche Management. The approach is based on a joint framework proposed in the literature (Markard and Truffer, 2008) but rarely applied on empirical cases. Besides investigating the reasons behind the peculiar performance of CHP in the UK compared to other European countries (Weber, 2014), the author will also address gaps in theoretical developments related to the niche concept and niche typology (Raven, 2006; Smith and Raven, 2012), and the applicability of transition pathways concepts (Geels et al., 2016) for multi-regime transitions.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Greenwich

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Sentić, Anton

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Coles, Anne-Marie
• Piterou, Athena

• HD Industries. Land use. Labor

Language dc:language

en