Energy Transition,...Energy Transition, Sustainability and Social Ties 3.1. An unequal technical...

Workshop Transversal Group City & EnergyLabEx Urban Futures

Champs-sur-Marne, 2019

Energy Transition,

Sustainability and Social Ties

Expertises and Transactions,

Four Case Studies in North East France

Philippe Hamman

Institute for Urbanism and Regional Development

Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Strasbourg

Laboratory SAGE (Societies, Actors and Government in

Europe, UMR 7363)

Introduction

Outline of the presentation:

1. Theoretical framework: Sustainability and energytransition

2. Citizen wind power in rural areas: the example ofSaâles

3. Two contrasting urban sites in Strasbourg

4. Towards a normalization of inhabitant participation? Energy transition and social housing

Conclusion

Energy Transition, Sustainability and Social Ties

1. Theoretical framework: sustainability & energy transition

1.1 Sustainability: consensus or conundrum?

- Sustainability combines economic, ecological and social concerns:

this implies necessary transactions and compromise.

- « Sustainable development »: transaction or oxymoron?

• Was presented as the alternative to unbridled economic growth

(Brundtland Report-1987, Rio Earth Summit-1992)

• Is part of a priori assumptions defining a « politics of

consensus » (Jacques Rancière, 1998): who could claim to

disagree with the concern shown to the future of our planet,

threatened by global warning, natural disaster and « global »

hazards?

• Was popular in the 1990s-2000s: reframing of public policies;

concept used on different scales (European cities, Aalborg

European Charter, 1994).


This apparent consensus conceals numerous disagreements on

the type of future envisioned, even as these conceptions are used

today as legitimizing arguments:

- The 2007-2008 global economic crisis exposed the fault lines in

the apparent consensus on sustainability: today, technological

and economic principles are often opposed to ecological and

social ones.

- Does sustainability mean breaking with the prevailing vision of

economic growth as synonymous with progress (=degrowth), in a

world in which resources are limited and in which human

activities inexorably link to resource depletion?

- Or can science and technology lead to the emergence of new

« sustainable » models of economic growth (« green growth »,

« smart cities »…?)


1.2 From sustainability to (energy) transition

- The notion of « transition » is often coupled with reference to the

energy sector → shows how important climate issues have become in

sustainability policies (whatever their scale).

- Procedural issues are raised: how change is organized and governed

(≠ clean break with the past) → more widely shows that SD includes

procedural and not only substantive (three pillars) elements: democracy

and participation…

- Energy transition = the set of changes that need to be effected in our

ways of producing, consuming and thinking energy.

- A transactional perspective, based on the dialectical relation

between adaptation/disruption: transactions founded on patterns of

continuity (ex.: speed limitation but primacy of cars, i.e. use of fossil

energy, unchallenged, etc.) versus patterns of disruption (ex.: bikes) →

Transition does not merely consist in technological change but raises

truly political issues.


1.3 Social frames for thinking « energy transitions »:

= Linking three levels of analysis (and interests involved)

together

1. The different energy industries ➔ The social dimension of

technological processes: the adoption of specific energy systems

and energy sources entails political, economic, social and local

consequences. Ex.: civilian nuclear energy in France.

2. Content ➔ There is a multiplicity of possible conceptions and

orientations. Ex.: France and Germany took different views of

civilian nuclear power after Fukushima; + what energy « mix » is

chosen.

3. Uses and degrees of appropriation ➔ How do « common »

citizens relate to energy transition? What possible strategies can

be used to ensure effective participation in a Renewable Energy

project?


1.4 Energy Transition: a multilevel process

1. The role of the market

• Technological innovations help develop new energy industries

(ex.: pholtovoltaic solar energy); permanence of a centralized

model (leading energy companies).

2. Citizen regulation

• The quest for self-sufficiency, outside the energy industry

• Social perspectives on the energy transition, and reflections on

ways of life (energy-efficient…).

3. Hybrid processes on the local scale:

Transactions: Hybrid energy systems both inspired by:

• the cooperative movement (decentralization).

• a centralized model (the locally produced energy is distributed

through the existing, centralized network).

Energy Transition, Sustainability and Social TiesEnergy Transition, Sustainability and Social Ties

2. Citizen wind power in rural areas: the example of Saâles

A middle mountain commune

829 inhab. in 2016 (880 in 2009)

Underprivileged area:

15-64 yrs old unemployment rate:

17,5% in 2015

Compared to 10% in the Alsace region.

Level of education :

41,1% have no diploma

34,7% hold secondary-level vocationaldegrees (CAP, BEP)

Observations and interviews on site

Photo: Amandine Léonate, Saâles, 2013


Photo: Mairie de Saâles


2.1. The wind energy program in Saâles

Nature of the transaction:

Through the creation of a semi-public company, two wind

turbines, out of ten, have been bought by the community.

✓The local authority owns 40% of the company

✓Citizen shareholders: Citizens can purchase shares of the

company, up to 60%

Objectives:

• Bringing inhabitants closer to the site of wind power

production (they can buy shares in the energy company)

•Stimulating citizen participation in energy transition

• Introducing the idea that energy can be locally produced

(even though it will fuel the centralized power grid)


2.2. Inhabitant participation as mere tokenism?

- Specialized associations → the project is managed by experts.

• Intervention of national and regional associations for the promotion of

energy cooperatives: function as a network, not on a local scale

• The inhabitants who would want to become shareholders are offered

standardized « advice packages », also adapted to other projects + their

participation was summed up in the purchasing of shares, thus depending

on selective economic criteria.

• The inhabitants are considered as a homogeneous, unchanging whole.

- Citizen participation cannot be taken for granted: the inhabitants are not

all interested in the process, or able to master the rules of the game.

• Partial/ unclear ideas about the schemes: some think that the

electricity produced is to be used for local needs (public lights, school…).

• It is difficult for inhabitants/users without technical skills to fully master

the schemes: the risk is that only the narrow circle of experts (elected

representatives, technicians, members of specialized associations) who

have designed them will play a role.

Methodology: Energy Transition, Sustainability and Social Ties

3. Two contrasting urban sites in Strasbourg

1. Individual « green energy » producers: Plobsheim, a

residential suburb close to Strasbourg

Photo:

commune

de

Plobsheim


2. Installation of a

cogeneration heating

network in the social

housing estate of

Cité de l’Ill.

Quantitative

research

questionnaires

(over 300 exploitable

questionnaires, 150

on each of the two

sites) coupled with a

dozen interviews of

the inhabitants. Photographie: renovation, Cité de

l’Ill, Saskia Tomsu


Contrasting socio-economic profiles: Distribution of the inhabitants of Cité de l’Ill

and Plobsheim by socio-professional categories (RRP, 2010, INSEE)


3.1. An unequal technical mastery over energy systems

On the whole, the declarative data do not show any

significant gap in the residents’ knowledge of the different

types of renewable energy.

Solar and wind energy have been widely promoted and are

now well known among most social categories.

Yet :

There is a significant gap between Plobsheim and Cité de

l’Ill when it comes to more technical terms (ex.:

methanization) and when more precise questions are

asked about the way energy processes and systems

work.

Methodology: Energy Transition, Sustainability and Social TiesEnergy Transition, Sustainability and Social Ties

3.2. Acceptation of

energy technologies by

the residents

Residents in Cité de l’Ill more

often declared that they would

accept the installation of

Renewable Energy equipment

in their field of vision from

their neighborhood than

residents in Plobsheim (who

considered possible related

nuisances?)

Example: Wind turbines:

35% of the sample said they

would ‘certainly’ accept them

in Cité de l’Ill vs. less than

25% in Plobsheim.


4. Towards a normalization of inhabitant participation?

Energy transition and social housing

• Interactions between landlords and tenants in two social housing

estates of different size, where efforts to promote

« sustainability » have resulted in attention to the buildings’

energy efficiency.

• The group surveyed – social housing tenants from the popular or

middle classes (the less endowed ones) – is rarely studied in

surveys on urban sustainability: raises the issue of inhabitant

participation.

→ How can these residents participate in the construction of what is

presented as a common good, i.e. the sustainable and energy-

efficient city, when they are less endowed than the others?


Research methodology

→ Two surveys conducted in North East France between 2012 and

2015.

• Interreg IV Upper Rhine program « Renewable Energies » → site: Cité

de l’Ill in Strasbourg.

• FUI-BPI-FEDER CIMBEES applied research program: « Design and

industrialization of environmentally and socially energy-efficient

building units » → site: a social housing estate in Saint-Dié.

Results: a similar environmental awareness, but a differing

capacity to become involved in the energy transition

4.1 Energy schemes both calling for more involvement and

prescribing norms for action

→ Production and reception of « eco-gestures » at Cité de l’Ill and in Saint-Dié = Towards a normalization of resident participation, with

residents limited to curbing their energy consumption?

Results and discussion: Energy Transition, Sustainability and Social Ties

• In Cité de l’Ill : a campaign to

promote a new « eco-attitude »

included a set of instructions in

order to curb domestic energy

consumption (heating, water…).

• Such guiding documents list the

best practices that need to be

adopted to save energy. But they

restrict the user’s freedom: for

example, the residents are not able

to set the thermostat to the

temperature they desire, the

maximum temperature (20°C) has already been fixed directly from the

generation plant.


• In Saint Dié: a social housing

landlord aiming at energy efficiency

o PassivHaus label, energy-efficient

equipment (double-flow CMV

system, heat pump…) and call for

tenants to act in a « responsible »

way.

o Ex. : Plainfaing (photo Le Toit

vosgien) : renovation / passive

energy efficiency.


o Opening the windows:

- The landlord explicitly advised not to open the windows

more than a few minutes each day: double-flow CMV

systems ensure air exchange

- The tenants declared opening their windows on average 43

minutes every day, on a spectrum ranging from 0 minutes

to 6 hours a day; half of the tenants surveyed open for

more than half an hour, despite the financial deterrent.

- This is confirmed by the scant attention the tenants pay to

the display system: a clear majority (60,1%) declare they

do not look at it, either because of lack of interest (38%),

too little time (29%) or because they never think of it. This

technological device has not managed to become part of

the everyday life of the residents.


4.2. A shared environmental awareness, but differing

possibilities of becoming involved

• Climate change has become a widely shared preoccupation:

the residents on the two sites show relatively ample and

widespread knowledge on the subject.

• Two important results:

✓Declared interest in ecology rises with level of education.

✓The more sophisticated the energy system, the greater the

number of social housing tenants who do not understand

the technical terms used (geothermy, biomass, thermal or

photovoltaic solar energy). The gap between Cité de l’Ill

and Plobsheim is confirmed.

Distribution of the answers of the residents of the Cité de l’Ill social housing

estate about the different types of energy sources (source: Marie Mangold,

survey UMR SAGE)

Distribution of the answers of the residents of the energy-efficient social

housing estate in Saint-Dié as to whether the different types of energy sources

are renewable or not (source: Maël Lowenbrück, survey UMR SAGE)

Figure 6: Distribution of the answers of the residents of the energy-efficient social housing estate in Saint-Dié as to whether the different types of energy sources are renewable or not (source: Maël Lowenbrück, survey UMR SAGE)

0,0%

1,8%

4,8%

38,6%

39,8%

54,8%

63,9%

91,6%

Fuel oil

Coal

Natural gas

Bioenergy

Hydraulic energy

Geothermal energy

Wind energy

Solar energies


→ Conclusion : A shared concern, differing possibilities of

becoming involved

• What differs is not so much the value different social groups

ascribe to the environment….

• But the possibility of actively contributing to energy

transition. Participation cannot be taken for granted, it

depends on the ability to find one’s way in the maze of

energy innovations.


Main food buying criteria of the residents of the energy-efficient social housing

estate in Saint-Dié (source: Maël Lowenbrück, survey UMR SAGE)

→ Should not be overlooked a great deal of the social practices and

ways of life which are related to ecology (ex.: eating habits) or linked to

the environment and the natural world (ex.: leisure, community

involvement).

3

10

34

61

62

88

144

Other reason

Organic certification

Locally-grown

products

Quality label

Composition

Expiry date

Price

Conclusions

→ Three main conclusions can be drawn:

• First, transition can here be equated to a vertical, top-

down mode of regulation, constraining people to a

normative use of the resources.

• Second, the case studies reveal the underlying belief in

rational individuals. This viewpoint overlooks the diversity

of social configurations and actors. The emphasis on

individual responsibility (i.e. energy consumption) is far

from neutral: it conceals the weight of social structures.

• Third, these processes direct attention to the link between

energy transition and environmental inequalities, when

‘common people’ are not able to transform their interest in

renewable energy into action.

Thank you for your attention!

Contact: [email protected]

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