Understanding Energy Innovation

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Introduction

   • Heather Lovell

   Pages 1-16Open Access

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3. Networks

   • Heather Lovell

   Pages 17-36Open Access

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4. Nodes

   • Heather Lovell

   Pages 37-52Open Access

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5. Narratives

   • Heather Lovell

   Pages 53-71Open Access

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6. Nostalgia

   • Heather Lovell

   Pages 73-89Open Access

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7. Conclusions

   • Heather Lovell

   Pages 91-98Open Access

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8. Back Matter

   Pages 99-101

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This open access book uses smart grids to explore and better understand energy innovation, from a social science perspective. Understanding Energy Innovation has four core themes—networks, nodes, narratives and nostalgia—and each chapter tackles a theme, using case studies from Australia and Europe. Energy innovation is currently occurring at a rapid pace, in response to a host of problems including climate change, high energy prices, and unreliable supply. Understanding Energy Innovation provides ways to think about and plan for energy sector reform and innovation, drawing on core ideas from social and innovation theory, and centred on smart grids as a case study. These academic ideas are written about in an accessible way, recognising that a diversity of people have an interest in energy innovation generally, and smart grids more specifically, and would like to find out more about ways of understanding energy innovation that integrate the social and the political.

• smart grids
• sociotechnical transitions
• innovation
• energy policy
• infrastructure
• household energy
• household behaviour
• organisational change
• energy micro-grids
• energy and islands
• open access

“Setting out to de-mystify energy innovation, this book provides a comprehensive, grounded and accessible overview of the insights that a social perspective on energy transitions brings. With a focus on smart grids, drawing on examples from Australia and around the world, it explores the dynamics of innovation in practice, the stories we tell about it, and how nostalgia for times gone past will shape energy futures. A practical, insightful guide for the transition pathways ahead.” (Professor Harriet Bulkeley, Durham University, and Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University)

“The electricity grid already was a uniquely complex machine so what does it take to make it ‘smart’? Engineering can detail the material ingredients, but only the social sciences can explain the messy process of trying to make such innovations happen. In the short space of this unique book, Lovell provides expert guidance to the social science theories behind innovation, sheds new light on Australia’s smart grid experiments and (wait for it) explains why nostalgia matters.” (Dan van der Horst, Professor of Energy, Environment and Society, University of Edinburgh)


“Lovell presents an accessible and insightful framework for considering energy innovation. Through current case studies, she makes a powerful argument for more attention to be given to the social and human dimensions of innovation in the energy transition. This is a valuable contribution for those who commission and fund energy research, those who undertake research, and those who use the results.” (Drew Clarke, Chair, Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) ‘Australian Energy Transition Research Plan’)

• School of Social Sciences & School of Geography, Planning and Spatial Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia

  Heather Lovell

Heather Lovell is Professor of Energy and Society at the University of Tasmania, Australia. She is a human geographer with research interests in energy, climate change and the environment. Her research concerns the politics, policies and practices of innovation in response to environmental problems, focused on three empirical strands: smart grids, low energy housing, and carbon markets. Heather has previously held positions at Edinburgh, Durham and Oxford Universities in the UK. 

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