Reaching a 1.5C target: Socio-technical challenges for a rapid transition to low carbon electricity systems

摘要

A 1.5C global average target implies that we should no longer focus on merely incremental emissions reductions from theelectricity system, but rather on fundamentally re-envisaging a system that, sooner rather than later, becomes carbon free.Many low carbon technologies are surpassing mainstream predictions for both uptake and cost reduction. Theirdeployment is beginning to be disruptive within established systems. ‘Smart technologies’ are being developed to addressemerging challenges of system integration, but their rates of future deployment remain uncertain.We argue that transition towards a system that can fully displace carbon generation sources will require expanding thefocus of our efforts beyond technical solutions. Recognising that change has social as well as technical dimensions, andthat these interact strongly, we set out a socio-technical review that covers electricity infrastructure, citizens, businessmodels and governance. It describes some of the socio-technical challenges that need to be addressed for the successfultransition of existing electricity systems.We conclude that a socio-technical understanding of electricity system transitions offers new and better insights into thepotential and challenges for rapid decarbonisation.