Mark Winskel

Energy policy and institutional context: Marine energy innovation systems

A process of UK energy policy review in the early 2000s has seen renewable energy technologies moving from the policy margins to centre-stage. The review process drew on international experiences of renewables innovation, including an innovation systems framework that emphasises ‘social capital’ (collaborative learning between distributed agents). However, the UK energy system reflects a longstanding policy commitment to ‘financial capital’ (market competition and avoiding ‘picking winners’). This paper analyses policy tensions between social and financial capital by focusing on marine energy innovation, especially in the emerging Scottish policy arena. Recent initiatives to promote renewables innovation in the UK, though significant, face continuing challenges. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Marine energy innovation in the UK energy system: financial capital, social capital and interactive learning

Innovation activity in marine energy (wave and tidal stream) has been catalysed by a series of recent UK policy initiatives. However, the wider UK energy system remains substantially oriented to market competition and efficiency. As a result, tensions have emerged between recent R&D activity (especially interactive and collaborative learning) and its economic and institutional context. Drawing on interviews with marine energy device developers, these tensions are interpreted here as a conflict between social capital and financial capital. At the same time, the case also reveals complementary aspects of the relationship between social and financial capital.

The hesitant emergence of low carbon technologies in the UK: the micro-CHP innovation system

Micro combined-heat-and-power (micro-CHP) technology has potential to contribute significantly to the UKs climate change strategy. This study applies a technological innovation systems (TIS) analysis to the UK domestic micro-CHP sector to better understand the dynamics of this emerging technology, identify policy options for enhanced system development, while also assessing the effectiveness of the TIS framework as an analytical tool. Interviews with key system actors are used to understand system functions, enabling an analysis of system development over time in terms of inter-functional relations, and a brief comparison with the Dutch micro-CHP system. Specific policy recommendations are made, including clarification of government ‘renewable’ vs ‘low-carbon’ climate change mitigation objectives, establishing dedicated targets, incentives and supports for adoption, installation and industry representation. A critique of the TIS framework highlights the dangers of selectivity with regard to key functional patterns, underdevelopment of consumer influences, and insularity with respect to wider influences on innovation.

Embedding Social Sciences in Interdisciplinary Research: Recent Experiences from Interdisciplinary Energy Research

Ulrike Felt’s article calling for a reconsideration of the role of social sciences and humanities in Europe is welcome and timely (Felt, 2014). It also reminds us about some long-standing opportunities and challenges in interdisciplinary research. From a few points she raises, here I will offer reflections from my vantage point as an interdisciplinary energy researcher with a background in both physical and social sciences, and graduate research experience in Science, Technology and Innovation Studies. For the past eight years (2006–14) I have been closely involved in the research programme of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). Over the past five years I was UKERC’s national Research Co-ordinator, with responsibilities for research commissioning, management and strategy. I recently led a review of UKERC’s interdisciplinary achievements and challenges (Winskel et al., 2014a). UKERC is funded under the UK Research Councils’ Energy Programme (RCEP) to carry out ‘whole-systems’ interdisciplinary energy research, and to act as a central hub for University-based energy research in the UK. It was created in 2004 under a five-year award from three Research Councils: the Science as Culture, 2014 Vol. 23, No. 3, 413–418, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09505431.2014.926150