Understanding Energy Innovation: Learning from Smart Grid Experiments [Paperback]

This open access book uses smart grids to explore and better understand energy innovation, from a social science perspective. Understanding Energy Innovation has four core themesnetworks, nodes, narratives and nostalgiaand each chapter tackles a theme, using case studies from Australia and Europe. Energy innovation is currently occurring at a rapid pace, in response to a host of problems including climate change, high energy prices, and unreliable supply. Understanding Energy Innovation provides ways to think about and plan for energy sector reform and innovation, drawing on core ideas from social and innovation theory, and centred on smart grids as a case study. These academic ideas are written about in an accessible way, recognising that a diversity of people have an interest in energy innovation generally, and smart grids more specifically, and would like to find out more about ways of understanding energy innovation that integrate the social and the political.Chapter One  Introduction.- Chapter Two  Networks.- Chapter Three  Nodes.- Chapter Four  Narratives.- Chapter Five  Nostalgia.- Chapter Six  Conclusions.Heather Lovell is Professor of Energy and Society at the University of Tasmania, Australia. She is a human geographer with research interests in energy, climate change and the environment. Her research concerns the politics, policies and practices of innovation in response to environmental problems, focused on three empirical strands: smart grids, low energy housing, and carbon markets. Heather has previously held positions at Edinburgh, Durham and Oxford Universities in the UK. Setting out to de-mystify energy innovation, this book provides a comprehensive, grounded and accessible overview of the insights that a social perspective on energy transitions brings. With a focus on smart grids, drawing on examples from Australia and around the world, it explores the dynamics of innovation in practice, the slS•