In recent years, interest for local energy production, supply and consumption has increased in academic and public debates. In particular, contemporary energy transition discourses and strategies often emphasize the search for increased local energy autonomy, a phrase which can refer to a diverse range of configurations, both in terms of the spaces and scales of the local territory considered and in terms of what is meant by energy autonomy.
This book explores policies, projects and processes aimed at increased local energy autonomy, with a particular focus on their spatial, infrastructural and political dimensions. In doing so, the authors - Sabine Barles, Bruno Barroca, Guilhem Blanchard, Benoit Boutaud, Arwen Colell, Gilles Debizet, Ariane Debourdeau, Laure Dobigny, Florian Dupont, Zélia Hampikian, Sylvy Jaglin, Allan Jones, Raphael Ménard, Alain Nadaï, Angela Pohlmann, Cyril Roger-Lacan, Eric Vidalenc - improve our understanding of the always partial and controversial processes of energy relocation that articulate forms of local metabolic self-sufficiency, socio-technical decentralization and political empowerment.
Comprising fifteen chapters, the book is divided into four parts: Governance and Actors; Urban Projects and Energy Systems; Energy Communities; and The Challenges of Energy Autonomy.
Table of Contents
Foreword xiii
Introduction xv
Fanny LOPEZ, Margot PELLEGRINO and Olivier COUTARD
Part 1. Governance and Actors 1
Chapter 1. Urban Planning and Energy: New Relationships, New Local Governance 3
Cyril ROGER-LACAN
1.1. Distributed energy: the constant adaptation of urban areas 4
1.2. “Sustainable cities” and new energy systems: from harmonization to a common origin 9
1.3. Reshaping local governance 12
1.4. References 17
Chapter 2. Decentralized Energy and Cities: Tools and Levers for Urban Energy Decentralization 19
Allan JONES MBE
2.1. Introduction 19
2.2. Background 20
2.3. Woking, UK 20
2.4. London, UK 22
2.5. Sydney, Australia 24
2.5.1. Background 24
2.5.2. Sustainable Sydney 2030 25
2.5.3. Green Infrastructure Plan 26
2.5.4. Trigeneration Master Plan 26
2.5.5. Renewable Energy Master Plan 27
2.5.6. Advanced Waste Treatment Master Plan 29
2.5.7. CitySwitch Green Office Program 30
2.5.8. Better Buildings Partnership 31
2.5.9. Environmental Upgrade Agreements 31
2.5.10. City of Sydney Projects 33
2.5.11. Carbon-neutral Sydney 34
2.5.12. Conclusion 35
2.6. Seoul, South Korea 37
2.6.1. Background 37
2.6.2. Fukushima nuclear disaster 37
2.6.3. One Less Nuclear Power Plant 38
2.6.4. Seoul International Energy Advisory Council 39
2.6.5. International Energy Advisory Council 40
2.6.6. One Less Nuclear Power Plant, Phase 2 - Seoul Sustainable Energy Action Plan 40
2.6.7. Seoul Energy Corporation 41
2.6.8. Interregional cooperation 43
2.6.9. Conclusion 43
2.7. Overall conclusions 44
2.8. References 46
Chapter 3. The Third Industrial Revolution in Hauts-de-France: Moving Toward Energy Autonomy? 47
Eric VIDALENC
3.1. The industrial revolutions in the region 48
3.1.1. The cornerstones of the first industrial revolution 48
3.1.2. The successors of the second industrial revolution: the automotive industry and electricity 50
3.2. The TIR’s resources in Hauts-de-France 54
3.2.1. An expanded view of some of the local expertise 55
3.2.2. The basis of local ecosystems 55
3.2.3. Strong political backing 56
3.2.4. The expansion of the TRI/REV3 brand 57
3.2.5. Multiple financial tools 57
3.2.6. Subregional territorialization: energy subsidiarity 58
3.2.7. Network managers are changing their views 59
3.3. Initial assessments and analyses 60
3.3.1. Late, but still a strong objective 60
3.3.2. An update on the TRI/REV3 trajectories 61
3.3.3. A techno-centered vision 63
3.3.4. Tensions regarding the priorities and temporalities 64
3.3.5. From solidarity to regional autonomy through energy subsidiarity 65
3.4. References 67
Chapter 4. Rethinking Reliability and Solidarity through the Prism of Interconnected Autonomies 69
Gilles DEBIZET
4.1. Introduction 69
4.2. Four prospective scenarios for urbanized spaces 71
4.2.1. Large companies 72
4.2.2. Local authorities 72
4.2.3. Cooperative stakeholders 73
4.2.4. Regulating state 74
4.3. Intermediaries with new energy autonomies 75
4.3.1. Energy storage as an essential factor of autonomy 75
4.3.2. Energy autonomies as organizations 76
4.3.3. A combination of different energy scenarios according to the regions 77
4.4. A variety of decision-making scales relating to energy infrastructure 77
4.4.1. The country and the continent 78
4.4.2. Housing 78
4.4.3. The building 78
4.4.4. The district 79
4.4.5. The city or metropolis 79
4.5. Conclusion: solidarities must be reinvented in the era of connected energy autonomies 80
4.6. Acknowledgments 82
4.7. References 82
Part 2. Urban Projects and Energy Systems 85
Chapter 5. Critical Densities of Energy Self-sufficiency and Carbon Neutrality 87
Raphael MÉNARD
5.1. Introduction 87
5.1.1. What can environmental measures be related to? 89
5.1.2. Critical densities and catchment areas 91
5.2. Energy consumption density 92
5.2.1. Differences regarding the 2,000 watts 92
5.2.2 0.1 watts per square meter as average for mainland France 94
5.3. Renewable energy production density 97
5.3.1. Renewable energy production is Eulerian 97
5.3.2. Energy harvesting plans 98
5.3.3. Quantification of the production flow of a region 99
5.4. Self-sufficiency, convergence: 1-W regions 100
5.4.1. The 7 hectares, surface area per person in the world garden 100
5.4.2. The story of urban transition in cities 101
5.4.3. The fundamental equality of self-sufficiency 107
5.4.4. Some self-sufficiency paths according to density 108
5.5. Emission density and carbon neutrality 110
5.5.1. Post-COP21 and carbon neutrality 110
5.5.2. Equivalent emission densities 112
5.5.3. Carbon sequestration density 112
5.5.4. The fundamental equation of carbon neutrality 113
5.6. Conclusion 113
5.6.1. Continent-sea balance 113
5.6.2. The city-countryside dichotomy 114
5.6.3. The city, an energy-carbon monster 114
5.6.4. The mathematics of density, relocating according to the right proportions 115
5.6.5. The scales in question 116
5.7. References 117
Chapter 6. What Autonomy is Available in the Design of Energy Solutions within French Urban Development Projects? The Example of District Heating 119
Guilhem BLANCHARD
6.1. Introduction 119
6.2. Urban heating within development projects: an opportunity for local monitoring of the energy system 121
6.2.1. Windows of opportunity for local players 121
6.2.2. Urban development and district heating projects still remain subject to numerous external constraints 124
6.3. The decision-based autonomy of urban heating projects from the perspective of urban development projects’ technical management 127
6.3.1. Design of the supply infrastructure: a weakly structured coordination between design arenas 129
6.3.2. Coordination of supply and demand: an even more significant division 132
6.4. Conclusions and final thoughts 135
6.5. References 137
Chapter 7. Positive Energy and Networks: Local Energy Autonomy as a Vector for Controlling Flows 141
Zélia HAMPIKIAN
7.1. Positive energy, autonomy and flow dynamics 142
7.2. The case of Lyon confluence and the Hikari block: a rhetoric of mutualization for achieving partial self-sufficiency 145
7.3. The “right” scale of autonomy and control over flows 150
7.4. From autonomy to flow management: who is in charge? 155
7.5. Conclusion 160
7.6. References 161
Chapter 8. From Energy Self-sufficiency to Trans-scalar Energy 163
Florian DUPONT
8.1. Self-sufficiency or sharing of the heat supply 164
8.1.1. Four examples of scale jumping that question self-sufficiency 164
8.1.2. Assess the strategic contribution of each operation to the networks 170
8.2. Redefining the goal of self-sufficiency 171
8.2.1. Using the cost-benefit analysis? 171
8.2.2. Using a new financial paradigm including the old one? 174
8.2.3. First achievement: 1,000 trees 174
8.2.4. From self-sufficiency to synergies 175
8.3. The importance of strategic planning using project levers 175
8.3.1. Electricity networks redefine their mesh 177
8.3.2. Liège: valorizing the electrical infrastructures of the industrial valley 177
8.3.3. Mains gas seeks its revival 178
8.3.4. From data to planning: cities think about energy 179
8.4. Conclusion 181
Part 3. Energy Communities 183
Chapter 9. Sociotechnical Morphologies of Rural Energy Autonomy in Germany, Austria and France 185
Laure DOBIGNY
9.1. Introduction 185
9.2. Technical choices and autonomy processes 187
9.3. Actors of local energy autonomy 190
9.4. Spatial and autonomy temporalities 195
9.4.1. Bringing the relevant techniques into existence 195
9.4.2. Social and geographical morphologies 196
9.4.3. The influence of regulatory and legislative frameworks 200
9.4.4. The role of energy policies and political structures 201
9.4.5. Pioneer towns: “was it easier before?” 203
9.5. From the construction to the transferability of “models” of autonomy: what impasses and issue are there? 206
9.6. References 210
Chapter 10. Community Energy Projects Redefining Energy Distribution Systems: Examples from Berlin and Hamburg 213
Arwen Dora COLELL and Angela POHLMANN
10.1. Introduction 213
10.1.1. Rethinking networked infrastructures beyond “public versus private” 214
10.1.2. Citizens claiming networked infrastructures in Germany’s largest cities 214
10.2. Situational analyses of urban energy system transformation 216
10.3. People have the power? Citizens claiming energy infrastructure 217
10.3.1. (Re)negotiating infrastructures of decision-making on the power grid: the case of BEB 217
10.3.2. From protest to empowerment: civil society engagement in Hamburg’s energy distribution systems 223
10.4. Discussion: reconfiguring the social in sociotechnical? 228
10.5. Conclusion 229
10.6. References 231
Chapter 11. Autonomy and Energy Community: Realities to Reconsider? 239
Ariane DEBOURDEAU and Alain NADAÏ
11.1. Introduction 239
11.2. Mapping and genealogy of energy community approaches 242
11.2.1. Technological element: innovation at the heart of energy communities 245
11.2.2. The collective element: which communitie(s) favor energy issues? 246
11.2.3. Institutional element: framing and empowering communities 246
11.2.4. Discussion 248
11.3. Scope and limits of existing works 249
11.3.1. A high presence of instrumental and normative approaches 249
11.3.2. The singularity of English language “critical localism” 252
11.3.3. The locational nature of analytical frameworks 253
11.3.4. The minimalist and shifting contents for the notion of community 253
11.3.5. Discussion 260
11.4. Conclusion 263
11.5. References 265
Part 4. The Challenges of Energy Autonomy 271
Chapter 12. Regional Energy Self-sufficiency: a Legal Issue 273
Benoit BOUTAUD
12.1. Self-sufficiency analyzed through the prism of the territory 274
12.1.1. A reality far from clichés 274
12.1.2. Going beyond the productive aspect 278
12.2. Regional energy self-sufficiency: a legal issue 281
12.2.1. Municipalities that become legally self-sufficient 281
12.2.2. The energy self-sufficiency of municipalities: an organizational challenge 283
12.3. Conclusion 287
12.4. References 288
Chapter 13. Electricity Autonomy and Power Grids in Africa: from Rural Experiments to Urban Hybridizations 291
Sylvy JAGLIN
13.1. Introduction 291
13.2. From the “crisis” to electrical experiments 294
13.2.1. Electric disasters and riots 295
13.2.2. Huge investment needs 296
13.2.3. Renewables and decentralized systems: a third way for sub-Saharan Africa? 298
13.3. Electrical hybridizations between pragmatic autonomy and new dependencies 299
13.3.1. Rural experiments 300
13.3.2. ... and urban hybridizations 303
13.3.3. Off-grid under constraints 305
13.4. Conclusion 309
13.5. References 310
Chapter 14. Energy Self-sufficiency: an Ambition or a Condition for Urban Resilience? 315
Bruno BARROCA
14.1. Introduction 315
14.2. A matter of definitions 316
14.3. Technical systems and resilience 319
14.4. Self-sufficiency and functional resilience 321
14.4.1. Functional resilience and system modeling 321
14.4.2. Can self-sufficiency be achieved by managing failures of technical systems? 322
14.5. Self-sufficiency and the meta-system: toward spatial resilience? 324
14.5.1. Meta population, meta-system and self-sufficiency 324
14.6. Conclusion 327
14.7. References 327
Chapter 15. Urban Metabolic Self-sufficiency: an Oxymoron or a Challenge? 331
Sabine BARLES
15.1. Introduction 331
15.2. Energy and matter: urban metabolism 332
15.3. The city and its hinterlands: the lack of physical autonomy 335
15.4. Decision-making self-sufficiency: a challenge? 341
15.5. Conclusion 346
15.6. References 347
List of Authors 351
Index 353
