Pathways to Sustainable European Energy Systems

 

 

Home / Pathways STEM : Sub-project 1

"Pathways – Swedish system solutions" is to chart the driving forces for investment in sustainable energy technology and efficiency measures, with the clear orientation of finding methods that enable these forces to coordinate toward sustainability. Today this is not always the case. A thorough analysis of investment practices is also to be carried out.

 

Problem formulation and research questions

With a business-economic approach we intend in this part of the project to analyze carefully:

• Which are the most important driving forces for investments in companies and households, and for investments that promote sustainable adaptation of the energy system?

• Are the economic driving forces (e.g. profit demands or costs) in harmony with the other driving forces?

• How can an improvement or change in the investment calculations, and a change of investment practices, be stimulated and carried out?

 

A successful reorientation of the energy system presupposes investments by particular actors – both companies and individuals. Research shows that companies and individuals alike base their investment decisions on a complex pattern of driving forces, not just economic ones. It is important to understand all these forces in order to be able (politically) to influence the choice of investments. Further, research shows that the economic calculations which companies make are often deficient and frequently set excessively high profit requirements, which counteract the development toward a sustainable energy system instead of speeding it up.

It is therefore important, especially with a focus on the energy companies, to:
• Clarify the significance of ownership and company control issues for different types of energy companies and different types of energy production.

• Analyze the conflicts that can arise between interests of business and interests of social economics, and present possibilities of handling them.

• Understand how the relations between owners and company managements in the energy industry influence the development of the energy system.

• Describe the different types of goals which owners as well as managements have for their companies, and describe different forms of control that are used to attain the goals.

 

Method

The investigation of investment practice and its influence on the energy system's development will entail a study of energy companies which are active in Sweden and Europe. In addition to these actors, final consumers – both companies and private customers – will be studied as well. Mainly interviews will be used to study the companies, while private customers will also be analyzed through the use of "focus groups". The interview study is to be carried out at a number of companies with representatives of owners and managements. The ambition is to obtain a wide distribution of owner and company types. By collaborating with other research groups in Europe we can also efficiently acquire a broad range of European experience.

 

PARTICIPATING RESEARCHERS:

Anders Sandoff and Gabriela Schaad
School of Economics at Göteborg University