Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
produced, although most of these are vertically integrated (sold through centralized
channels), much like the energy regime.
The transition pathway that renewable energy production has followed can be divided
into a number of overlapping phases (pioneering, anchoring, translation, take-off, and
contested transition) which are discussed in more detail in the following sections.
Pioneering phase (1950s to 1970s)
In the MLP, innovations are conceptualized as occurring as technological novelties; when
these novelties gain a supportive or protective environment (for example actors that
encourage their development), they are considered niches (see Darnhofer, this volume).
These novelties and niches often exist for years if not decades before a 'window of
opportunity' opens at landscape level, which leads to increased demand for the technology
and thus direct interaction with the regime (Geels and Schot, 2010). We therefore term the
development of the niche in its early stages 'pioneering'.
Both wind energy and anaerobic digestion have lengthy histories in terms of
development in the study sites. In Germany, anaerobic fermentation was first used after
World War II, with approximately 50 to 70 plants in Eastern and Western Germany. Due to
oil and coal supply improving during the 1950s, biogas technologies were abandoned and
then taken up again in the 1970s, when the oil price crisis led to a revival of interest. In the
Czech Republic, anaerobic digestion was first experimented with on farms in the 1970s but
the focus was on dealing with the waste associated with large-scale intensive livestock
production and heat was simply treated as the by-product of a waste-management solution.
The first biogas station was constructed in Czechoslovakia in 1974 and still functions to
this day. Wind turbines were also experimented with in the United Kingdom in the 1970s,
as part of a search for alternative energy sources in response to the oil crisis of 1973. Prior
to that point, wind turbines had been located primarily on farms and rural residences as a
means of pumping water, grinding grain into flour and providing electricity to remote farm
locations (Gipe, 1995).
In the pioneering 'niche development' phase, it is notable that: (i) the technologies
were developed originally for farm use; (ii) the technologies were used to address issues
other than climate change (e.g. waste management and to provide alternative energy
sources); and (iii) the changes were inspired in part by rising oil prices (a landscape
pressure). As such, renewable energy in the 1970s represents what Geels and Schot (2010)
would consider a 'transformation pathway', whereby a moderate landscape pressure (peak
oil prices) occurs at a time when the niche-innovations have not yet been sufficiently
developed to capitalize on this opportunity. Energy regime actors responded by modifying
their research and innovation activities (by investing in research into renewable energy
production). Subsequent reductions in oil prices and technical difficulties slowed uptake but
a foothold had been established. This process of 'anchoring' is further described in the next
section.
Anchoring phase (1970s to mid-1990s)
The oil crisis of 1973 led to processes of 'anchoring' of wind and biogas technologies in the
case study areas. Elzen
et al.
(2012:3) define anchoring as:
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