Background
The Include Center is broadly oriented towards examining how the green shift can exacerbate challenges regarding social justice. This project expands Include's original energy justice perspective by investigating how the green shift can be used to benefit local communities and reduce established inequalities between centers and peripheries.
About the Project
In this project, we investigate how local authorities (municipalities), grid companies, technology companies, and businesses can work together to develop and implement power systems tailored to local conditions. The project will examine local energy initiatives on the island of Utsira through field visits and follow-up interviews with stakeholders from the municipality, business community, and organisations of interest.
Utsira's energy plans span large parts of the island, with the municipality being a local driver, in addition to the grid company (Fagne, formerly Haugaland Kraft) playing an active role in designing new grid solutions in combination with ambitious plans for increased energy production on the island. New energy production is also intended to facilitate new industries, such as salmon farms. More recently, there have also been openings for concession applications in the Utsira Nord offshore wind field, right in Utsira's backyard – a development that could have lasting implications for how offshore wind concessions are handled in the future.
The grid solution projects on the island are in many ways a pilot that can contribute to developing more efficient grid solutions at a national level, including by engaging Utsira as a "living lab". A key element here is finding ways to handle increased power demand in the grid in ways other than increasing the maximum capacity of the power lines. This work can contribute to developing the implementation of new energy technologies and solutions that, in turn, can influence and support local businesses and a sustainable local population. Utsira has faced challenges in maintaining its population over several years, partly due to outmigration. The energy projects can be part of a solution to this, both on Utsira and in other municipalities with similar challenges.
In summary, the research project aims to study and identify:
- Criteria of success and benefits associated with the development of local energy solutions
- Various forms of energy collaboration between public and private actors
- The importance of local energy policy for the national arena
Report
Local energy opportunities. Report from a case study of energy initiatives on Utsira. (in Norwegian)
Collaboration
The project is part of the Include research center and is conducted by researchers from the CICERO Center for Climate Research. The project currently has no partners outside the research sector, but anyone interested in collaborating on the project can contact the project manager:
Mikkel Vindegg, Senior Researcher, CICERO
Email: mikkel.vindegg@cicero.oslo.no
Phone: +47 22 00 47 02
Duration
The project started in August 2021 and is planned to continue until June 2022.