This book analyses the potential for active stakeholder engagement in the energy transition in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) in order to foster clean energy deployment. Public acceptability and bottom-up activities can be critical for enduring outcomes to an energy transition. As a result, it is vital to understand how to unlock the potential for public, community and prosumer participation to facilitate renewable energy deployment and a clean energy transition – and, consequently, to examine the factors influencing social acceptability. Focussing on the diverse BSR, this book draws on expert contributions to consider a range of different topics, including the challenges of social acceptance and its policy implications; strategies to address challenges of acceptability among stakeholders; and community engagement in clean energy production. Overall, the authors examine the practical implications of current policy measures and provide recommendations on how lessons learnt from this ‘energy lab region’ may be applied to other regions. Reflecting an interdisciplinary approach in the social sciences, this book is an essential resource for scholars, students and policymakers researching and working in the areas of renewable energy, energy policy and citizen engagement, and interested in understanding the potential for bottom-up, grassroots activities and social acceptability to expedite the energy transition and reanimate democracies. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This book analyses the recent development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the Baltic Sea region and how energy security in the region has improved after Finland, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden have constructed their LNG import terminals. In addition to these LNG receiving units, the book deals with the major pipeline projects, such as Baltic Pipe, Balticconnector, Nord Stream 2, and Gas Interconnection Poland-Lithuania, and their impact on energy security of the Baltic Sea region. This book will be of interest to experts specialising in European energy markets and energy security.

This volume addresses renewable energy communities, and in particular renewable energy cooperatives (REScoops), in the context of the revised EU Renewables Directive. It provides a comprehensive account of the history and development of the renewable energy community movement in over six different countries of continental Europe. It addresses their visions, strategy, organisation, agency, and more particularly the challenges they encounter. This is of particular importance to gain more understanding into how renewable energy communities fare in domestic energy markets where they are confronted with regime institutions, structures and incumbents’ agency that tend to favour maintaining of the status quo while blocking attempts to empower and institutionalise renewable energy communities as market entrants having a disruptive, radical green and localist agenda. This volume will be an invaluable reference for academics and practitioners with an interest in social innovation in sustainable transitions, the role of community energy in energy markets, their agency, as well as an outlook to the impact that the EU Renewables Directive may have to change national legislation and policy frameworks to create a level playing field that is essentially more fair and beneficial to renewable energy communities.

This book examines energy transition issues within the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region. The European Union is aiming for an almost complete decarbonization of its energy sector by 2050. However, the path towards a carbon-free economy is full of challenges that must be solved by individual EU members. Across 18 chapters, leading researchers explore challenges related to energy transition and analyse individual EU members from Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the region as a whole. To further explore this complex issue, the volume also includes several countries from South East Europe in its analysis. As perspective members, these countries will be important contributors to the EU’s mid- and long-term climate and energy goals. The focus on a variety of issues connected to energy transition and systematic analyses of the different CEE countries make it an ideal reference for anyone with a general interest in the region or European energy transition. It will also be a useful resource for students looking for an accessible overview of the field.

Renewables are a game changer for interstate energy relations. Their abundance and intermittency, possibilities for decentral generation and use of rare earth materials, and generally electric nature of transportation make them very different from fossil fuels. What do these geographic and technical characteristics of renewable energy systems imply for infrastructure topology and operations, business models, and energy markets? What are the consequences for the strategic realities and policy considerations of producer, consumer, and transit countries and energy-related patterns of cooperation and conflict between them? Who are the winners and losers? The Geopolitics of Renewables is the first in-depth exploration of the implications for interstate energy relations of a transition towards renewable energy. Fifteen international scholars combine insights from several disciplines - international relations, geopolitics, energy security, renewable energy technology, economics, sustainability transitions, and energy policy - to establish a comprehensive overview and understanding of the emerging energy game. Focus is on contemporary developments and how they may shape the coming decades on three levels of analysis: · The emerging global energy game; winners and losers · Regional and bilateral energy relations of established and rising powers · Infrastructure developments and governance responses The book is recommended for academics and policy makers. It offers a novel analytical framework that moves from geography and technology to economics and politics to investigate the geopolitical implications of renewable energy and provides practical illustrations and policy recommendations related to specific countries and regions such as the US, EU, China, India, OPEC, and Russia

Baltic Energy Technology Scenarios 2018 (BENTE) is a scenario-based energy system analysis that explores the changes in the Baltic countries’ energy systems. What are the drivers and their impacts in the following decades? What would be required for the Baltic countries to meet their climate and energy targets in 2030, and what development would lead the Baltics towards a 2°C pathway? The report finds that the Baltic countries’ proposed renewable energy (RE) targets can be achieved using domestic resources. More renewable energy (electricity, heat and fuels) lets energy demanding sectors reduce GHG emissions and increase the RE share. However, the Baltic countries still do not reach their Effort Sharing Sector’s 2030 targets in the 4°C Scenario (4DS). Without policies to stimulate local renewable energy generation, the Baltics are likely to become large net importers of electricity.

The Energy Trilemma in the Baltic Sea Region provides insight into the energy trilemma in the Baltic Sea Region. Energy Trilemma in the Baltic Sea Region has undergone significant transformation in the last number of years. Energy actors in the region are struggling to reconcile new questions of energy security following the COVID-19 pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine with net-zero objectives and a cost-of-living crisis. Balancing these concerns is essential to resolving the “energy trilemma”: the dilemma that emerges for policy-makers and regulators seeking to balance energy security, equity, and environmental concerns in pursuit of a wholly sustainable energy system. This volume draws together a range of perspectives from scholars of the Baltic Sea Region seeking to understand the manifestations and impact of these systemic regional changes. In considering previously underexamined studies on the energy trilemma and in providing new perspectives by framing the trilemma in times of crisis, this book provides new conceptual and empirical insight into a rapidly changing energy region at the heart of both European energy policy and the current energy crisis. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy politics, energy law and policy, energy transitions, and Baltic studies more broadly.