Emerging energy geographies: Scaling and spatial divergence in EUropean electricity generation capacity

This paper presents an evaluation of the impact of the related EU internal energy market and renewable energy policies by exploring the (sustainable) energy transition in the EUropean electricity sector and drawing on the emerging literatures on energy geographies. We use evidence aggregated from pl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European urban and regional studies 2017-10, Vol.24 (4), p.381-404
Main Authors: Dahlmann, Frederik, Kolk, Ans, Lindeque, Johan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aggregate data
Climate change
Electric utilities
Electricity generation
Energy consumption
Energy industry
Energy policy
Environmental policy
Geography
Liberalization
Ownership
Policy making
Renewable energy
Renewable resources
Territoriality
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Summary:This paper presents an evaluation of the impact of the related EU internal energy market and renewable energy policies by exploring the (sustainable) energy transition in the EUropean electricity sector and drawing on the emerging literatures on energy geographies. We use evidence aggregated from plant-level data on installed electricity generation capacity in the EUropean electric utilities sector over the period 1990–2013 to demonstrate how the unintended interaction between EU policies on energy market liberalization and climate change have led to new renewable energy entrants and more widely dispersed ownership of total generation capacity. Our empirical results suggest that six energy geography concepts enable deeper insights into the spatiality of the EUropean energy transition. Specifically, we find that territoriality and scaling are key lenses for interpreting the differentiated change processes occurring at EUropean, subregional and national levels. The EUropean energy transition is unlikely to converge onto a single trajectory any time soon, but particularly subregional approaches are argued to offer policy-makers with more spatially cognizant and effective levers.
ISSN:0969-7764
1461-7145
DOI:10.1177/0969776416663808