UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Renewable Energy as an Underutilised Resource in Cities: Germany’s ‘Energiewende’ and Lessons for Post-Brexit Cities in the United Kingdom

Sait, MA; Chigbu, UE; Hamiduddin, I; de Vries, WT; (2019) Renewable Energy as an Underutilised Resource in Cities: Germany’s ‘Energiewende’ and Lessons for Post-Brexit Cities in the United Kingdom. Resources , 8 (1) , Article 7. 10.3390/resources8010007. Green open access

[thumbnail of Sait_resources-08-00007.pdf]
Preview
Text
Sait_resources-08-00007.pdf - Published Version

Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

Renewable energy remains an underutilised resource within urban environments. This study examines the ongoing German Energiewende (energy transition) as an example of renewable energy being treated as a necessary resource for urban development. It departs from existing literature by operationalising the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), taking a policy systems approach to analyse (and explain) the cases of three German cities—Munich, Berlin, and Freiburg. This approach helps draw lessons for future UK energy scenarios by placing more abstract conceptions of Sustainable Energy Transitions (SETs) within the context of UK cities, post-Brexit. By discussing five main themes: the shift from government to governance; the need to break ‘carbon lock-in’; renewable energy innovation as an underutilised resource; developing governance strategies for renewable energy resources; the shift from policy to practice, the study yields a detailed reconceptualisation of approaches to renewable energy resource-use policy. The novelty of this study lies in its response to these challenges, taking a policy systems approach to energy governance. The article concludes with a proposed integrated framework. The framework, which is based on multi-scalar and multi-stakeholder integrated energy governance strategy, reconsiders the way in which renewable energy resources are seen in current governance terms in the UK. The framework presents a new approach to renewable energy resource-use policy that embraces innovation, responsible governance, and inclusive processes, (alongside thinking beyond simply technical solutions) to considering the socio-economic impacts of policy decisions in cities.

Type: Article
Title: Renewable Energy as an Underutilised Resource in Cities: Germany’s ‘Energiewende’ and Lessons for Post-Brexit Cities in the United Kingdom
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.3390/resources8010007
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.3390/resources8010007
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: city planning; Energiewende; post-Brexit; renewable energy systems; resource-use policy; sustainable energy transitions; underutilised resources
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett School of Planning
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10065084
Downloads since deposit
174Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item