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  • Book
  • © 2012

Sustainability Innovations in the Electricity Sector

  • Provides detailed insights into utilities' behaviour concerning sustainable electricity in Germany
  • Offers insights from multiple interdisciplinary approaches for explaining innovation processes
  • Includes empirical evidence from five European countries
  • Numerous tables and illustrations summarize key empirical findings.

Part of the book series: Sustainability and Innovation (SUSTAINABILITY)

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
  2. Governance Variety in the Energy Service Contracting Market

    • Katrin Ostertag, Friederike Hülsmann
    Pages 41-55
  3. Local Utilities Under the EU Emission Trading Scheme: Innovation Impacts on Electricity Generation Portfolios

    • Katrin Ostertag, Nele Glienke, Karoline Rogge, Dorothea Jansen, Ulrike Stoll, Sven Barnekow
    Pages 83-96
  4. Microgeneration in the UK and Germany from a Technological Innovation Systems Perspective

    • Barbara Praetorius, Mari Martiskainen, Raphael Sauter, Jim Watson
    Pages 117-140

About this book

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.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Sciences, Chair of Sociology of Organisation, German University of Administrative, Speyer, Germany

    Dorothea Jansen

  • , Sustainability and Infrastructure System, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Inn, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Katrin Ostertag

  • and Innovation Research, Sustainability and Infrastructure, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Rainer Walz

About the editors

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.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access