• Energy Research

Sustainability concerns reducing air and water pollution, improving energy efficiency while securing energy supply, and maintaining resilience to disasters. Interconnected in complex and dynamic ways, these challenges pose formidable difficulties and obstacles in designing and implementing sustainable smart cities. As various types of data are increasingly available on diverse dimensions of cities, it is critical to assemble and integrate them in creating innovation. Sustainability science communities can play an important crucial role in facilitating the exchange and sharing of data accumulated through research activities. Institutional arrangements need to be aligned with incentives to stakeholders in promoting open data for innovation.

Universities are playing an increasingly central role in advancing sustainability at the local, regional and national scale through cross-sector collaborations. Accompanying the launch of Future Earth, interest is mounting in the co-design and co-production of knowledge and solutions for advancing global sustainability, particularly in urban areas. Place-based university partnerships appear as particularly significant vehicles for enacting co-design and co-production in the context of urban sustainability. However, the nature and role of these partnerships are not well understood, in part due to the absence of systematic analyses across multiple cases. To fill this gap, the objectives of this paper were to conduct a large-scale international survey focusing on university partnerships for urban sustainability in industrialised Europe, Asia and North America to (1) determine defining features such as focus areas, geographical scales, mechanisms, actors and motivations, and (2) identify commonly encountered drivers, barriers and potential impacts. Results indicate that partnerships most typically target energy, buildings, governance and social systems, unfold at local or city-scales, and involve collaborations with local or regional government. Our analysis shows that potential outcomes of university initiatives to co-design and co-produce urban sustainability are not limited to knowledge and policy. They also encompass the creation of new technological prototypes, businesses and new socio-technical systems, in addition to transformations of the built and natural environment. Findings also suggest that individual partnerships are making strong social, environmental and sustainability impacts, with less evidence of economic contributions. Strategies are required to enhance project management and ensure that projects address contrasting priorities and time horizons in academia and local government. Implications for policy include findings that targeted funding programmes can play a key role in fostering partnerships. Measures are also required to challenge academic norms and incentive structures that, in some cases, hinder university efforts to engage in place-based initiatives to co-design and co-produce urban sustainability.

The energy sector is undergoing a transition of decarbonization, decentralization, and digitalization. This paper explores the application of blockchain in this transition. Through qualitative content analysis, expert interviews and discussion rooted in recent literature, key insights on the practical challenges and opportunities of blockchain energy applications are investigated. This is done in technological, economic, social, environmental, and institutional dimensions in order to propose holistic insights. Key dentified issues include scalability, data privacy, costs of change, market dynamics, user experience, skills, multi-stakeholder governance, and regulatory change. Key identified opportunities also range across these dimensions, such as blockchain advancements, power market development, user research, and regulatory sandboxes. While most research on blockchain energy applications has been from the technological lens, this paper contributes with a multi-dimensional approach. The interrelatedness among these dimensions is one of the key messages of this paper. Both corporate strategy and public policy development need to integrate user behavior research, business model innovation and regulatory experimentation for a holistic approach in understanding and implementing blockchain, and other emerging technologies. It is suggested that the multi-dimensional challenges and opportunities identified in this study, and functioning of their interrelatedness, are of interest for further exploration both in academia and among practitioners. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Abstract Finding economical and sustainable pathways for the deployment of renewables is critical for the success of decarbonizing energy systems. Because of the variable nature of renewable energy, however, the integration of renewables becomes increasingly costly and difficult as the renewable penetration becomes higher. The recent rise of electric vehicles (EVs) provides us with an opportunity to increase self-consumption of solar photovoltaic (PV) at households with substantially lower additional costs. In this paper, an environmental techno-economic assessment of residential PV systems is conducted with battery or EVs allowing charging and discharging (Vehicle to Home: V2H) in Kyoto, Japan, and Shenzhen, China, incorporating the cost projections of these technologies towards 2030. It is found that “PV + EV” (V2H) becomes highly cost-effective towards 2030 in Kyoto in comparison with “PV only”, “PV + battery”, and “EV charge”. In the region of lower electricity costs such as Shenzhen, switching to EVs from gasoline vehicles is the most cost-effective option during 2020s. Finally, it is found that “PV + EV” has the highest CO2 emission reduction potential across all the technology combinations considered, owing to EV charging of carbon-free electricity from PV. To facilitate a rapid household decarbonization, policy makers should reinforce policies to enhance the penetration of combined technologies of “PV + EV” (V2H) towards 2030.

Abstract The energy cost contributes to a significant percentage of the total operational cost of the apparel industry. The energy cost of Sri Lanka, which is higher compared to most of the competitors, hence would make the country less price-competitive. While large apparel manufacturing companies have implemented the introduction of energy-efficient technologies at a relatively early stage, while small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are still experiencing various barriers and obstacles, due to lack of finance, knowledge, technology and motivation. This paper analyses the factors that influence the diffusion of energy-efficiency technologies in the apparel industry. We conducted a survey study of the current situation of SMEs in Sri Lanka and analysed the opportunities and challenges in the diffusion of energy-efficient technologies. Based on the empirical findings, we propose a new framework for facilitating improved access to information and finance, which will require close collaboration among various stakeholders including SMEs, industry associations, financial institutions, universities, and energy service companies. The proposed framework will eliminate information and finance barriers for the diffusion of energy-efficient technologies in SMEs in the apparel industry in Sri Lanka.

Following numerous global scientific studies and major international agreements, the decarbonization of energy systems is an apparent and pressing concern. The consequence of continued emission growth tied to rising global average temperatures is difficult to predict, but against a background of other natural and human-induced disasters, may create a situation, from a positive perspective, where each disaster event triggers “build back better” responses designed to speed the transition toward low carbon, resilience-oriented energy systems. This article examines the potential for disaster-triggered responses in communities, at various local and regional levels, in four industrial economies in the Asia Pacific region: Japan, China, Australia, and the USA. Seven case studies were evaluated against a set of criteria that exemplify the key aspects of resilient energy systems. The research results suggest that a new space of innovation does emerge in post-disaster situations at a range of local and regional scales. The greatest potential benefit and opportunity for significant gains, however, appears to manifest at the small community level, and the ultimate challenge relates to how to mainstream local innovations into state and national level transformation on energy systems so as to enhance resilience and promote rapid decarbonization.

Abstract To accelerate the electrification of road transport, numerous countries are promoting the diffusion of both Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and Fuel-Cell Vehicles (FCVs). Both technologies hold unique advantages and disadvantages while also facing common barriers with regard to production and diffusion. Barriers may be classified into four categories: 1) supply-side (i.e. vehicle production), 2) infrastructure preparation (i.e. charging and fuelling), 3) demand-side (i.e. spurring societal demand) and 4) institutional design (i.e. stimulating investments and the availability of technology). Relative to BEV literature, studies on FCV diffusion efforts are fewer. Also, while many studies highlight numerous diffusion barriers, knowledge on actual governance strategies to overcome these is lacking. Filling this gap, we examine governance measures used by government and industry in Japan to accelerate the development and diffusion of FCVs. The above framework is applied to examine coping strategies employed, unresolved challenges and potential ways to overcome these. Data are sourced from expert interviews and document analysis. Findings reveal robust measures to tackle supply-side and infrastructure challenges. Conversely, demand-side measures rely on public subsidies and lack regulatory instruments to stimulate vehicle demand. Also, institutional strategies to increase the pool of FCV makers are lacking visible outcomes. We thus lay out several policy suggestions to overcome these unresolved challenges.

Abstract This paper attempts to ‘connect the dots’ between several cases and provide a comprehensive global analysis of the trend of universities reaching across campus boundaries to form partnerships with government, industry and civic organisations to drive an urban sustainability transformation. We refer to this emerging and possibly new academic function as ‘co-creation for sustainability’. Our paper consists of three sections. In the first, we interpret this academic trend from a sociohistorical perspective based on previous social contributions of the university. Secondly, we conduct a macro-level empirical analysis based upon 27 partnerships from Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. Here we propose a framework for analysing and comparing key characteristics and commonalties across a large range of cases. We then supplement this with a micro-level study of two cases from Switzerland and the USA (2000 Watt Society Pilot Region Basel programme by Novatlantis and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) domain and Rust to Green Utica by Cornell University). Here we examine closer the specific characteristics, processes, key outcomes and challenges encountered in each partnership. It is expected that this study can provide a valuable contribution to what is potentially a new area of academic research and a powerful way of advancing urban sustainability transformations.