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Cape Forum on Green and Smart Transitions in Cities and Regions: Technical and Governance Challenges

Edited by: Dr. Maarten Arentsen, Ms. Dagmar Fiedler, Dr. Thomas Hoppe, Johan Hurink

Making the transition to smart and green energy is a number one challenge in the European Union. According to the International Energy Agency’s Energy Technology Perspective, energy policy needs to take into account the overall functioning of the energy system in an integrated way, not just on individual technologies. The need for a systemic perspective is also stressed in the academic literature on transitional change and transition management.

Cities and regions in Europe are gaining significance as strategic and operational actors in addressing the smart and green energy challenge. It is in the smaller regional context where new resources, technologies, organisations, and business models are developed and implemented, providing innovative technologies and energy services.

  1. This paper focuses on discourses of transition in the electricity system in the Irish print media, with particular attention to both the framing and the scalar referents of the debate. We characterise some of ...

    Authors: Gerard Mullally and Edmond Byrne
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2016 6:3
    Content type: Original article Published on:

  2. The decentralised and private nature of small-scale renewable energy development does not fit traditional models of government planning and oversight. The land use impacts related to these developments are not...

    Authors: Cheryl de Boer, Richard Hewitt, Hans Bressers, Patricia Martinez Alonso, Verónica Hernández Jiménez, Jaime Díaz Pacheco and Lara Román Bermejo
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2015 5:31
    Content type: Original article Published on:

  3. The project KREIS focuses on a new combination of renewable energy provision with innovative wastewater treatment, called the “Hamburg Water Cycle®” (HWC) which will be applied in Hamburg’s neighbourhood Jenfe...

    Authors: S. Hertel, P. Navarro, S. Deegener and I. Körner
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2015 5:29
    Content type: Original article Published on:

  5. The Eurostat statistics on the 28 EU member states’ performance in relation to renewable energy show that the Netherlands comes 25th in the EU-28. Yet, 500 initiatives were started by citizens and social group...

    Authors: J. A. M. Hufen and J. F. M. Koppenjan
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2015 5:18
    Content type: Original article Published on:

  6. The energy supply of the Meppel district Nieuwveense landen is based on biogas cogeneration, district heating, and ground source heat pumps. A centrally located combined heat and power engine (CHP) converts bi...

    Authors: Richard P van Leeuwen, Jirka Fink, Jan B de Wit and Gerard JM Smit
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2015 5:16
    Content type: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Published on:

  7. An important avenue toward a proper ‘energy transition’ through regional and local projects is for government to collaborate with private sector organizations. In the energy sector, these latter organizations ...

    Authors: Michiel A Heldeweg, Maurits Sanders and Marc Harmsen
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2015 5:9
    Content type: Original article Published on: