Sustainability Innovations in the Electricity Sector

The future of modern societies depends on their ability to deal with the challenge of climate change in the coming decades. One essential component is a better understanding of innovation processes in the energy sector. This book focuses on sustainability innovations in renewable energies, combined heat and power, and energy service contracting, and analyses the institutions, actors and functions within the innovation system. Of particular interest is the question of whether the joint effect of EU-driven market liberalization and climate policies will succeed in establishing market forces that will drive actors towards more climate-friendly energy production. A special focus is on the role of local utilities in the electricity sector as opposed to large transmission net operators or regional net operators. The countries covered in the contributions include Germany, Denmark, the UK, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

Prof. Dr. Dorothea Jansen, since 1999 Chair of Sociology of Organisation at the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer, Dr. rer. soc., Diploma Social Sciences, Studies of economics and Social Sciences at the Universities of Cologne and Bochum, PhD and Habilitation at the University of Bochum, since 2007 Deputy Director of the German Research Institute of Public Administration. Recent publications (selection): Zur Organisation des Gründungserfolgs, Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag 2003 (with Mike Weber); Einführung in die Netzwerkanalyse, 3. Auflage, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag 2006; Strategien von Stadtwerken im liberalisierten Strommarkt, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007 (edited together with Eberhard Bohne); Der Abschied vom “stand alone"-Akteur, Dow Jones Energy Weekly 1/09, S. 8-10 (with Sven Barnekow); Governance and Performance in the German Public Research Sector: Disciplinary Differences. Dordrecht: Springer 2010.

Dr. Katrin Ostertag coordinates the business unit Sustainability Innovation and Policy within the Competence Center Sustainability and Infrastructure Systems at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI in Karlsruhe. She studied economics with a focus on international economic theory and policy in Germany and the UK. 1999-2000 research at Centre International de Recherche sur l’Environnement et le Développement (Paris) as part of a Marie-Curie fellowship. 2002 PhD at the Louis Pasteur University (Strasbourg) on the microeconomic aspects of energy efficiency. Her research interests include energy and resource efficiency, measuring innovation in the field of sustainability, qualitative analyses of innovation processes and the design, simulation and evaluation of policy instruments promoting sustainable development (certificate trading among others).

Priv.-Doz. Dr. Rainer Walz is Head of the Competence Center Sustainability and Infrastructure Systems at theFraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI in Karlsruhe. He studied Economics and Political Science at the University of Freiburg and at Brock University, Canada. PhD and "habilitation" in economics. In 1992, he received the Friedrich-August-von-Hayek Price from the University of Freiburg. In 1991, Dr. Walz joined the Fraunhofer ISI. Prior employment includes the University of Wisconsin and the Enquête Commission "Protecting the Earth's Atmosphere" of the German Bundestag. He is teaching at the University of Karlsruhe and is a member of various national and international committees.