2018 Conference

Individual Paper Presentation

Over the past few years a new area or research has been coalescing under the title the “Renewable Energy Transition.” Broadly speaking, the renewable energy transition is the transition from fossil fuel-based to renewable energy-based society. At the broadest level, any research related to renewable energy could be considered within the renewable energy transition literature. Within such a broad scope, there is a tendency for the literature to be too diverse, lacking core themes and principles. Furthermore, an area of research that is bound together by a practical application - the transition to renewable energy - can be intellectually shallow if it is without a core theoretical foundation. The goal of this paper is to provide that theoretical foundation for the renewable energy transition by developing core principles. Some of the principles are novel and some are adaptations of theoretical concepts from other disciplines, but taken together, they form a wholly new set of guidelines upon which renewable energy transition policies could be based. The principles are 1) Fostering Resilience, 2) Energizing People, 3) Embracing Fair Market Practices, 4) Being Net Energy Positive, 5) Matching Means with Ends, and 6) Saving First. This presentation will contextualize the renewable energy transition within the literature from which these core principles were taken, beginning to create the theoretical foundation for this nascent field.