Facing global climate change and scarce petroleum supplies, the world must switch to sustainable energy systems. While historical transitions between major energy sources have occurred, most of these shifts lasted over a century or longer and were stimulated by resource scarcity, high labor...

Poland is the largest hard coal and second largest lignite producer in the EU, generating around 80 percent of its electricity from coal. Resistance to a reduction in coal production and consumption comes from various actors, namely, coal corporations, unions, parts of civil society and the...

This article examines energy transition political process from a sector-based approach, through the analysis of recent shift in the French forest policy regime. We demonstrate that, since 2007, energy transition policies have led to a harvesting turn within the French forest policy framework,...

New developments towards a more sustainable energy delivery system require electricity distribution grids that support distributed generation and a potential increase in electricity demand. In this article, the impact of changes in future residential use on the electricity distribution grids is...

In September 2010 the German government initiated a plan to shift from fossil fuels to renewable energies, with nuclear power as a bridging fuel. Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, however, the government decided to immediately shut down almost half of Germany's reactors and phase out the...

This history of the transition from organic to mineral fuels suggests a number of conclusions that may have parallels in the future: People respond to price incentives; science is important but not sufficient; human capital is important; cooperation is as important as competition; path breaking...

This paper provide evidence of the early transition from coal to oil for 20 Latin American countries over the first half of the 20th century, which does not fit the transition experiences of large energy consumers. These small energy consumers had earlier and faster transitions than leading...

The aim of this paper is to discuss the period of energy privatisation and liberalisation which began in the 1980s within its wider historical context. The key issues are what has been learned from this recent period, and how significant is it in the light of an energy transition to low carbon...

Recent efforts to promote a transition to a low carbon economy have been influenced by suggestions that a low carbon transition offers challenges and might yield economic benefits comparable to those of the previous industrial revolutions. This paper examines these arguments and the challenges...

The article examines the influence of renewable energy companies on the decision-making process related to the German energy transition. It identifies clusters of different lobbying activities and styles through in depth interviews with 20 stakeholders from policy-making and business. The...