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Extreme weather events disrupt power-system assets, causing widespread and prolonged power outages. Proper siting of power-system assets can help stakeholders improve their resilience (i.e., the ability to withstand hazards and recover quickly from impacts) at the planning stage. However, resilience is context-dependent because different regions face distinct hazards and these damage power system assets differently. As such, the asset siting schemes for stakeholders involve a complex process of i) identifying hazards and vulnerable assets, ii) determining the failure mechanisms of assets under hazards and iii) weighing up the economic and social effectiveness involved in resilience enhancement measures. This paper will focus on the first step of the process, which is to demonstrate how to identify the most severe hazards (e.g., floods) and affected assets (e.g., substations), using Peninsular Malaysia as the study area. The results of this study can provide research objectives for the subsequent two steps: determining the failure mechanisms of assets subject to hazards, and developing resilience enhancement measures in the third step.

Explorations of emerging urban spatial futures increasingly depend on the empathetic interweaving of broad political ideals with grounded democratic involvement. The collaborative planning paradigm (CP) and participatory action research (PAR) have thus gained traction globally, since they centralise meaningful involvement of those with lived experiences of the local environment. Building upon this, we argue that ‘utopia’ can offer an alternative paradigm that enhances citizen engagement, by refocusing urban design and planning explorations away from a problem-based orientation to a values-based one. Through a four-stage collaborative framework: 1. Experiencing the Space, 2. Sketching of Utopias, 3. Sharing of Utopias, and 4. Collaborative Analysis, participatory utopian sketching offers the possibility for richer and wider citizen engagement in urban development processes. The novelty of the framework is its tenets of collaboration, citizen inclusivity, playful experimentation, and iterative reflective activity. Its flexibility also allows for multiple real-world applications in the making of urban spatial futures. We demonstrate the methodological framework of participatory utopian sketching using an empirical pilot study examining the spatial imagination of solar panel futures within a neighbourhood located in LuleÃ¥, the provincial capital of Northern Sweden. Thereafter, we provide elucidations on the framework’s opportunities and challenges in wider urban design and planning discourse. Validerad;2022;Nivå 2;2022-04-21 (sofila)

The Climate Change Act commits the UK Government to an ambitious 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050; this paper provides a consumer focused framework to devise, inform and evaluate potential interventions to reduce energy demand and emissions in food supply chains. Adopting a Life cycle Assessment (LCA) framing we explore the relationship between production and consumption by reviewing trends in the food sector with implications for energy demand. Secondly, a multidisciplinary review of the literature on sustainable consumption is structured around the ISM (Individual, Social, Material Contexts) framework devised by Southerton et al., bringing insights from a range of theoretical perspectives. Combined, these frameworks complement LCA approaches to mapping and quantifying emissions hotspots in a supply chain in two ways.First, production and consumption must be considered with the ‘consumer’ interactive throughout, one of many factors affecting energy use at each stage, rather than restricted to the end of a supply chain. Second, when considering consumption patterns and how they might be changed, drawing on the insights of multiple disciplines allows for a fuller array of potential interventions to be identified. Given the complexity of the food system and the range of relevant sustainability goals, there are several areas in which the ‘preferred trajectories’ for ‘more sustainable’ consumption patterns are unclear, particularly where data on variation, causal relationships and longitudinal change is lacking. Technical and social understandings of ‘desirable’ change in the food sector must continue to be developed in parallel to achieve such challenging reductions in emissions.

Report from the 'Visions for the Future of Community Energy' workshops organised by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) Financing Community Energy project.

This report reviews different models and frameworks that explain public responses to low carbon technologies (LCTs). Based on insights from literature, it highlights the need for a multidimensional perspective to understand the complexities surrounding public acceptance or opposition to LCTs. It also proposes two key solutions for how public responses can be better accommodated in a way that engenders support from the public: by integrating social and values-based aspects in planning, and by ensuring procedural justice in technology deployment. Reflecting on these, policy options are drawn for how these solutions might help contribute to delivering better approaches in engaging the public in the low carbontransition.

This UKERC Working Paper seeks to understand the factors contributing to the emergence, growth and nature of community energy in the UK. It is based on a review of existing data and literature, and focuses on investigating the role of financing mechanisms and business models in the evolution of the community energy sector. It argues that, since its emergence in the UK in the late 1990s, community energy has grown through finding opportunities for smaller scale, decentralised energy activities in the UK's highly centralised energy system. The combination of development of renewable energy technologies, and the launch of the government's Feed-In Tariff Scheme (FITS) in 2010, produced a boom in the sector, especially around solar electricity generation. Recent cuts to FITS rates and other policy changes place community energy at a crossroads. Some renewables activity will continue, but groups are exploring a wide range of activities, partnerships, and business models. We are engaging with the sector around outputs from our research, which include a survey and case studies, to co-develop recommendations and pathways for the future.

Therapid growth of photovoltaic (PV) installations in recent years has largely beendriven by government incentive schemes that make PV an attractive option forbuilding owners seeking to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and energycosts. As government incentives are reduced or withdrawn the incorporation ofbattery storage, to lower building electricity grid imports through increasedon-site PV self-consumption, is an option to sustain rooftop PV uptake. Thisstudy combines a life cycle assessment approach and discounted cash flowanalysis to assess the CO2 and financial impact of adding battery storageto a PV assemblage in the context of future incentive withdrawal, electricitysystem decarbonisation and changing technology costs. An example non-domesticbuilding in the UK with a 20kW mono-crystalline silicon PV and 20kWhlithium-ion battery is modelled. With electricity grid decarbonisation in linewith the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the PV and battery system reduces thebuilding’s CO2 emissions by 15% (18tCO2) compared withthe grid-only reference over a 30year lifetime. The analysis also highlightsthat battery storage operated only to increase self-consumption of gridconnected rooftop PV does not necessarily increase C02 savings ofthe building with wider grid decarbonisation. For the 7%/annum technology costreduction rate examined, adding battery storage to a building’s PVconfiguration negatively affects financial performance for systems installed in2020. PV systems without batteries in the UK are however found to be viable in2020 without government incentives. The study concludes that battery costs haveto fall considerably, or additional revenue from providing electricity systemservices is needed to make batteries financially attractive in lower insolationareas like the UK. Policy to reduce electricity system CO2 through buildingintegrated battery uptake requires better understanding of the net system CO2impact in line with other changes in electricity generation and demand.

This paper explores the interlinkages between energy demand and food-related routines, to understand how routines that benefit energy demand management throughout the food system might be encouraged. Building on existing social science research, focus group data are used to examine the routines of people in three work-life situations; working parents, city dwellers, and empty nesters. A critical space in which to examine aspects of everyday life that entrench everyday routines is created by examining peoples’ feelings about their present routines and their aspirations for change. The resulting discussions illustrate the role of social and temporal commitments in shaping food routines, and how the different modes of provision, meals and methods of cooking used to navigate these commitments influence what is purchased and eaten. These aspects of everyday life therefore contribute to reinforcing and replicating patterns of energy use throughout the food system. The following discussions develop these initial findings to explore how interventions might support individual experimentation with alternative shopping, cooking and eating practices, and in so doing influence the ongoing evolution of food-related routines to the benefit of energy demand management.

Progress toward decarbonizing shipping has been slow compared with other sectors. To explore the scope for an urgent step-change cut in CO2, this paper presents results from a participatory technology roadmapping exercise. Results: Combining existing incremental and novel technologies with slow-steaming can deliver reductions in CO2 of over 50% even in the short term for existing ships. However, roadmaps for three vessel types illustrate barriers to change including the sector's complexity, infrastructure lock-in and a need for tailored market and vessel-specific roadmaps to support decision-making. Conclusions: Through technology and engineering, the outlook for the shipping sector to significantly cut its CO2 emissions, even in the short term, is promising. Nevertheless, the scale of change requires support to demonstrate how the long-term low-carbon vision offers enough benefit to overcome necessary short-term investment.

This paper explores the response by members of the lay public to the prospect of an onshore CO2 pipeline through their locality as part of a proposed CCS development and presents results from deliberative Focus Groups held along a proposed pipeline route. Although there is are a reasonable level of general knowledge about CO2 across the lay public, understanding of its specific properties is more limited. The main concerns expressed around pipelines focused on five areas:(i)safe operation of the pipeline; (ii) the risks to people,livestock and vegetation arising from the leakage of CO2 from the pipeline; (iii)the innovative and ‘first of its kind 'nature of the pipeline and the consequent lack of operational CO2 pipelines in the UK to demonstrate the technology;(iv)impacts on coastal erosion at the landfall site;and(v)the potential disruption to local communities during pipeline construction. Participants expressed scepticism over the motivations of CO2 pipeline developers.Trust that the developer will minimise risk during the route selection and subsequent construction,operation and maintenance of the pipeline is key;building trust within the local community requires early engagement processes, tailored to deliver a variety of engagement and information approaches.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) brings new entrants to subsurface exploration and reservoir engineering who require very high levels of confidence in the technology, in the geological analysis and in understanding the risks before committing large sums of capital to high-cost drilling operations. Many of the subsurface techniques used for hydrocarbon exploration are capable of translation to CCS activities. Unfamiliarity may, however, lead new entrants to openly question their applicability in order to transform their current understanding to a level where large capital investment can be organisationally justified. For example, some may make the erroneous assumption that a good CO2 subsurface store should resemble the pressure vessel type of containment that is prevalent with surface installations. Basic concepts such as utilising the rock structure and mineralogy to control fluid flow and securing the CO2 by residual trapping (between the rock grains) or by dissolution, as a superior storage mechanism, are counter intuitive and challenging to communicate effectively. To achieve success and reliable operation in CO2 emission reduction for coal- and gas-burning electricity power generation, all elements of the CCS chain have to function. In 2008 the CO2 Aquifer Storage Site Evaluation and Monitoring project (CASSEM) was one of the first UK based projects to attempt integration and full-chain connectivity from, capture and transport to injection, storage and monitoring. Its research is aimed at development of workflows that describe a CCS entry path for a target audience of potential new entrants, i.e. power utilities, engineering sector and government. In contrast to other studies, the CASSEM project has applied the specification of the full CCS chain, using two exemplar sites (coal-fired power plants) with contrasting geological conditions in the subsurface, to tailor storage site selection and analysis. Centred on the Ferrybridge Power Station in Yorkshire (Figure 1.1), a 'simple' site underlain by a thick, uniform sandstone with diverse legacy information available was sought onshore in the English Midlands. The offshore extension of this (Bunter) sandstone has been highlighted as a large potential aquifer store for CO2 captured from power plants in eastern and South East England. A 'complex' site was sought offshore of eastern Scotland, centred on the Longannet Power Station on the Firth of Forth near Edinburgh (Figure 1.2). This site was intended to confront the difficulties of investigating subsea structures with sparse legacy and incomplete information from hydrocarbon investigations. The selected site is a faulted and folded geological structure and the issues of seismic reflection surveys, detection of faults and fractures, and quality of the target reservoir, are similar to those which challenge offshore hydrocarbon exploration beneath the North Sea. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) brings new entrants to subsurface exploration and reservoir engineering who require very high levels of confidence in the technology, in the geological analysis and in understanding the risks before committing large sums of capital to high-cost drilling operations. Many of the subsurface techniques used for hydrocarbon exploration are capable of translation to CCS activities. Unfamiliarity may, however, lead new entrants to openly question their applicability in order to transform their current understanding to a level where large capital investment can be organisationally justified. For example, some may make the erroneous assumption that a good CO2 subsurface store should resemble the pressure vessel type of containment that is prevalent with surface installations. Basic concepts such as utilising the rock structure and mineralogy to control fluid flow and securing the CO2 by residual trapping (between the rock grains) or by dissolution, as a superior storage mechanism, are counter intuitive and challenging to communicate effectively. To achieve success and reliable operation in CO2 emission reduction for coal- and gas-burning electricity power generation, all elements of the CCS chain have to function. In 2008 the CO2 Aquifer Storage Site Evaluation and Monitoring project (CASSEM) was one of the first UK based projects to attempt integration and full-chain connectivity from, capture and transport to injection, storage and monitoring. Its research is aimed at development of workflows that describe a CCS entry path for a target audience of potential new entrants, i.e. power utilities, engineering sector and government. In contrast to other studies, the CASSEM project has applied the specification of the full CCS chain, using two exemplar sites (coal-fired power plants) with contrasting geological conditions in the subsurface, to tailor storage site selection and analysis. Centred on the Ferrybridge Power Station in Yorkshire (Figure 1.1), a 'simple' site underlain by a thick, uniform sandstone with diverse legacy information available was sought onshore in the English Midlands. The offshore extension of this (Bunter) sandstone has been highlighted as a large potential aquifer store for CO2 captured from power plants in eastern and South East England. A 'complex' site was sought offshore of eastern Scotland, centred on the Longannet Power Station on the Firth of Forth near Edinburgh (Figure 1.2). This site was intended to confront the difficulties of investigating subsea structures with sparse legacy and incomplete information from hydrocarbon investigations. The selected site is a faulted and folded geological structure and the issues of seismic reflection surveys, detection of faults and fractures, and quality of the target reservoir, are similar to those which challenge offshore hydrocarbon exploration beneath the North Sea.

Increasing distributed renewable electricity generation is one of a number of technology pathways available to policy makers to meet environmental and other sustainability goals. Determining the efficacy of such a pathway for a national electricity system implies evaluating whole system change in future scenarios. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and net energy analysis (NEA) are two methodologies suitable for prospective and consequential analysis of energy performance and associated impacts. This paper discusses the benefits and limitations of prospective and consequential LCA and NEA analysis of distributed generation. It concludes that a combined LCA and NEA approach is a valuable tool for decision makers if a number of recommendations are addressed. Static and dynamic temporal allocation are both needed for a fair comparison of distributed renewables with thermal power stations to account for their different impact profiles over time. The trade-offs between comprehensiveness and uncertainty in consequential analysis should be acknowledged, with system boundary expansion and system simulation models limited to those clearly justified by the research goal. The results of this approach are explorative, rather than for accounting purposes; this interpretive remit, and the assumptions in scenarios and system models on which results are contingent, must be clear to end users.

Electricity is becoming ever more central to the everyday practices of households. As the energy system decarbonises, it is likely that electricity will supply even more services, thereby increasing the dependence of communities on reliable electricity supply. In this situation, the risk of power outages during extreme weather events poses a serious challenge to the safety and wellbeing of communities. However, little is known of the capacity of households to manage normal day-to-day life in such circumstances. This paper focuses on the UK winter storms that occurred in February 2014, the result of which 80,000 homes were left without power and communities not reconnected for several days. We outline the impacts these power outages had on households, describing the challenges faced and the strategies adopted to alleviate impacts. This provides insight into everyday household-level resilience achieved through social and material elements that constitute everyday life.