Urban Energy Transition

Urban Energy Transition, second edition, is the definitive science and practice-based compendium of energy transformations in the global urban system. This volume is a timely and rich resource for all, as citizens, companies and their communities, from remote villages to megacities and metropolitan regions, rapidly move away from fossil fuel and nuclear power, to renewable energy as civic infrastructure investment, source of revenue and prosperity, and existential resilience strategy.

This compendium of 29 chapters from 18 countries contains both fundamental and advanced insight into the inevitable shift from cities dominated by the fossil-fuel systems of the industrial age to a renewable-energy based urban development framework. The cross-disciplinary handbook covers a range of diverse yet relevant topics, including: carbon emissions policy and practice; the role of embodied energy; urban thermal performance planning; building efficiency services; energy poverty alleviation efforts; renewable community support networks; aspects of household level bio-fuel markets; urban renewable energy legislation, programs and incentives; innovations in individual transport systems; global urban mobility trends; implications of intelligent energy networks and distributed energy supply and storage; and the case for new regional monetary systems and lifestyles. Presented are practical and principled aspects of technology, economics, design, culture and society, presenting perspectives that are both local and international in scope and relevance.

Urban Energy Transition, second edition, is the definitive science and practice-based compendium of energy transformations in the global urban system. This volume is a timely and rich resource for all, as citizens, companies and their communities, from remote villages to megacities and metropolitan regions, rapidly move away from fossil fuel and nuclear power, to renewable energy as civic infrastructure investment, source of revenue and prosperity, and existential resilience strategy. Covers technical, financial, systems, urban planning and design, landscape, mapping and modelling, and sociological issues related to urban renewable energy transformations Presents city-wide renewable energy strategies and urban thermal performance planning, sector coupling, and smart distributed renewable energy and storage systems Examines individual and mass transport systems in the contexts of urban mobility trends and energy innovations Explains successful innovations in solar bond finance, blockchain technology enabled peer-to-peer renewable energy trading systems, and the case for renewable energy based regional monetary systems Features foci on societal, community and user enabling aspects such as energy justice, prosperity and democracy, and urban renewable energy legislation, programs and incentives Includes analytic case insights into successful practices from around the globe that provide local, regional and country-specific governance and organizational perspectives

Research volume on urban energy transition that will have wide interdisciplinary appeal to researchers in energy, urban and environmental studies.

Sustainable Energy Transition for Cities brings together empirical and applied research in both urban planning and sustainable energy, offering coherent and innovative best practices for urban energy transition planning. Using a multidisciplinary framework, the book views cities as an integrated system composed of components such as neighborhoods and districts within an overall net-zero energy balance. Intended for academics, practitioners and policymakers interested in sustainable energy transition, the book offers insights and best practices to promote the transition to a low carbon urban society. Includes real-world case studies from around the globe Examines replicable tools such as GIS, BIM and the E-City Platform for developing and implementing energy-efficient urban models Provides learning aids such as figures, maps, conceptual models, operative schemes, literature reviews, guideline tables, extensive bibliography, and links

In September 2017, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, completely upending the energy grid of the small island. The nearly year-long power outage that followed vividly shows how the new climate reality intersects with race and access to energy. The island is home to brown and black US citizens who lack the political power of those living in the continental US. As the world continues to warm and storms like Maria become more commonplace, it is critical that we rethink our current energy system to enable reliable, locally produced, and locally controlled energy without replicating the current structures of power and control. In Revolutionary Power, Shalanda Baker arms those made most vulnerable by our current energy system with the tools they need to remake the system in the service of their humanity. She argues that people of color, poor people, and indigenous people must engage in the creation of the new energy system in order to upend the unequal power dynamics of the current system. Revolutionary Power is a playbook for the energy transformation complete with a step-by-step analysis of the key energy policy areas that are ripe for intervention. Baker tells the stories of those who have been left behind in our current system and those who are working to be architects of a more just system. She draws from her experience as an energy-justice advocate, a lawyer, and a queer woman of color to inspire activists working to build our new energy system. Climate change will force us to rethink the way we generate and distribute energy and regulate the system. But how much are we willing to change the system? This unique moment in history provides an unprecedented opening for a deeper transformation of the energy system, and thus, an opportunity to transform society. Revolutionary Power shows us how.

In an era of big data and smart cities, this book is an innovative and creative contribution to our understanding of urban energy use. Societies have basic data needs to develop an understanding of energy flows for planning energy sustainability. However, this data is often either not utilized or not available. Using California as an example, the book provides a roadmap for using data to reduce urban greenhouse gas emissions by targeting programs and initiatives that will successfully and parsimoniously improve building performance while taking into account issues of energy affordability. This first of its kind methodology maps high-detail building energy use to understand patterns of consumption across buildings, neighborhoods, and socioeconomic divisions in megacities. The book then details the steps required to replicate this methodology elsewhere, and shows the importance of openly-accessible building energy data for transitioning cities to meet the climate planning goals of the twenty-first century. It also explains why actual data, not modeled or sampled, is critical for accurate analysis and insights. Finally, it acknowledges the complex institutional context for this work and some of the obstacles – utility reluctance, public agency oversight, funding and path dependencies. This book will be of great value to scholars across the environmental sectors, but especially to those studying sustainable urban energy as well as practitioners and policy makers in these areas.

With an increase of global energy demand arising in urban settlements, the key challenges for the urban energy transition include analysis of energy efficiency options and the potential of renewable energy systems within the existing building stock, making cities a key actor in the transition success. In Urban Energy Systems for Low Carbon Cities, indicators to evaluate urban energy performance are introduced and the status quo of monitoring and efficiency valuation schemes are discussed. The book discusses advances on the state-of-the-art of research in a number of key areas: Energy demand and consumption mapping and monitoring Optimization of design and operation of urban supply and distribution systems Integration of renewable energy and urban energy network models Demand side management strategies to better match renewable supply and demand and increase flexibilities With innovative modelling methods this book gives a real bottom-up modelling approach used for the simulation of energy consumption, energy conversion systems and distribution networks using engineering methods. Provides support and guidance on the energy transition issues relating to energy demand, consumption mapping and monitoring Includes examples from case study cities, including Vienna, Geneva, New York and Stuttgart Analyzes the potential of energy management strategies in urban areas

"This compact book argues that ideas about accountability and legitimation - drawn from work on environmental governance - can open up new analytical perspectives on what is holding back effective energy system transformation. With bite-size chapters and illustrative cases that draw on the work of five expert witnesses, this is a novel intervention into debates over the politics of energy transition."--Professor Gavin Bridge, Durham University, UK "The book theorizes and advances the research frontier on legitimation practices and accountability with a carefully crafted analysis bridging scholarly fields of environmental governance, political economy, energy research and democratic theory. It is a must-read for all students and scholars interested in shaping more legitimate, democratic and accountable energy transition from the local to global context." -Professor Karin Bäckstrand, Stockholm University, Sweden This open access book reframes sustainable energy transitions as being a matter of resolving accountability crises. It demonstrates how the empirical study of several practices of legitimation can analytically deconstruct energy transitions, and presents a typology of these practices to help determine whether energy transitions contribute to sustainability. The real-world challenge of climate change requires sustainable energy transitions. This presents a crisis of accountability legitimated through situated practices in a wide range of cases including: solar energy transitions in Portugal, urban energy transitions in Germany, forestland conflicts in Indonesia, urban carbon emission targets in Norway, transport electrification in the Nordic region, and biodiversity conservation and energy extraction in the USA. By synthesising these cases, chapters identify various dimensions wherein practices of legitimation construct specific accountability relations. This book deftly illustrates the value of an analytical approach focused on accountable governa nce to enable sustainable energy transitions. It will be of great use to both academics and practitioners working in the field of energy transitions. Siddharth Sareen is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation at the University of Bergen, Norway.

This book investigates and evaluates the opportunities and limitations of network governance in building local capacity for energy infrastructure governance. Presenting a comparative analysis of three city cases from across Europe- Birmingham, Frankfurt and Budapest- this book demonstrates how local factors shape the prospect of network governance to support low-carbon energy transitions. It maps out existing governance networks, highlighting the actors involved and their interactions with one another, and also discusses the role and embeddedness of networks in the urban governance of low-carbon energy. Drawing on case study evidence, Nochta develops a comparative analysis which discusses the intricate connections between network characteristics, context and impact. It highlights that organisational fragmentation; the complexity of the low-carbon energy problem and historical developments all influence network characteristics in terms of degree of integration and vertical (hierarchical) power relationships among network actors. Overall, the book concludes that understanding such links between context and networks is crucial when designing and implementing new governance models aimed at facilitating and governing low-carbon urban development. Low-Carbon Energy Transitions in European Cities will be of great interest to scholars of energy policy, urban governance and sustainability transitions.