Designing our sustainable energy future: A shock doctrine for energy

Scott T. Bryant, Karla Straker and Cara Wrigley

Energy Policy, 2020, vol. 147, issue C

Abstract: A lack of understanding amongst industry and government regarding future business model and policy routes for achieving renewable energy targets risks society falling short of the energy transition required to help limit global heating to 1.5 °C. Despite a lack of clarity regarding the business- and governance-models required to facilitate such a transition, the urgency for achieving this shift is becoming increasingly apparent amongst industry and government. This paper explores the business and governance-models seen as likely to facilitate the adoption and uptake of sufficient levels of VRE to meet the global energy sector's climate crisis mitigation responsibilities. A Grounded Theory approach was undertaken to investigate and analyse the results of 28 semi-structured interviews, the coding of which involved the identification of 4 themes and 12 sub-themes. These themes allowed the development of an overarching sectoral pathway solution, framed in the form of a ‘government keystone model’, that exemplifies the current sectoral reality that governments hold the power to clearly design and implement an economically, environmentally and societally beneficial shift to high levels of VRE. It is argued this proactive role could be adopted using the looming “shock” to the margins of traditional energy business models by rising levels of VRE.

Keywords: Variable renewable energy (VRE); Energy transition; Business models; Governance models; Shock doctrine; Semi-structured interviews (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:147:y:2020:i:c:s030142152030625x

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111914

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