Energy transitions and uncertainty: Creating low carbon investment opportunities in the UK electricity sector

Ronan Bolton, Timothy Foxon and Stephen Hall

Environment and Planning C, 2016, vol. 34, issue 8, 1387-1403

Abstract: This paper examines how actors in the UK electricity sector are attempting to deliver investment in low carbon generation. Low carbon technologies, because of their relative immaturity, capital intensity and low operational costs, do not readily fit with existing electricity markets and investment templates which were designed for fossil fuel based energy. We analyse key electricity market and infrastructure policies in the UK and highlight how these are aimed at making low carbon technologies ‘investable’ by reducing uncertainty, managing investment risks and repositioning actors within the electricity socio-technical ‘regime’. We argue that our study can inform contemporary debates on the politics and governance of sustainability transitions by empirically investigating the agency of incumbent regime actors in the face of uncertainty and by offering critical insights on the role of markets and finance in shaping socio-technical change.

Keywords: Low carbon investment; uncertainty; sustainability transitions; energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirc:v:34:y:2016:i:8:p:1387-1403

DOI: 10.1177/0263774X15619628

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