Decentralised energy – a global game changer

Abstract

“In the last few years, renewable energy has broken through the cost barrier. But, if it is to become widely adopted, it has to break through an array of country-specific institutional, technical and political barriers. The strength of Decentralised Energy is that it takes seriously each country’s context through a range of country case studies. And yet, it pulls the messages together to give us the common challenges that advocates and promoters of renewable energy and decentralised resources must address to take forward and complete a clean energy transition.” Navroz K. Dubash, Professor, Centre for Policy Research, India “Everyone knows that renewable energy’s time has come. An increasingly important issue relates to decentralised resources, and how to use them most efficiently. Governance frameworks and developing new business models are important for both. This book uniquely takes a global view of these intertwined issues, and is a fascinating read for anyone interested in the acceleration of GHG reduction and in coordination factors for a cost effective energy policy.” Dan Kammen, Professor and Chair, Energy and Resources Group, UC Berkeley, Former Science Envoy, US Department of State “Accelerating the energy transformation is in all likelihood this generation’s most significant challenge to solve with little room for error. The authors write: “The last decade has witnessed the beginning of what is likely to be a fundamental, irreversible transformation of the power and wider energy sectors, […] [which] entails both regulatory incentives as well as entrepreneurial initiatives.” This book delivers on the high ambition to compare different models and derive critical success factors: it provides a review of different country archetypes with differing needs on their transition paths; on that basis the authors formulate requirements for decisive, transformative top-down governance; they study start-up success stories and categorise underlying business models; and they place these in a three-phased transformation model, concluding on relevant core competencies and success factors. In its essence the book substantiates the “D3” – decarbonisation, digitalisation, decentralisation – as key drivers for the energy transition through a rich range of top-down and bottom up examples. A relevant, timely, and compelling transition synthesis and precious resource for energy transformation practitioners!” Christoph Frei, Partner, Emerald Technology Ventures (and former CEO & Sec Gen of World Energy Council)