Innovation and institutional change: the transition to a sustainable ...

Stability and transformation in the electricity system 117
The main point is to point out that expectations, approaches, and policies
have a tendency to co-evolve with industrial and institutional changes.
Liberalisation has introduced a short-term market orientation both in the
electricity sector and in government circles which tends to lock-out PV.
However, PV development was rather strongly connected to diverse
networks where private panel owners, housing associations, building project
developers, and municipalities played central roles next to energy providers.
PV is therefore also taken up increasingly in the realm of building, whereas
its policy support is dominantly related to energy development. This is an
example of the way broader institutionalisation impacts the choices and
strategies regarding technologies such as PV that will provide different
functions than traditional energy technologies.
4.12 Biomass 43 emerges as the dominant sustainable
variety
Biomass can be applied in various ways as a source for electricity
generation. Four dominant principles exist in the route from biomass to
electricity, Figure 4.5 gives an overview.
Combustion is the principle dominantly used because it applies the same
technologies as in conventional electricity generation. For three other routes,
gasification, pyrolysis and fermentation/digestion, biomass is first converted
to gas or oil before it is fitted into electricity production with steam turbines
and/or gas turbines. These routes are generally considered to have larger
potential in the long term because they can provide more efficient and
cleaner electricity, but also because bio-fuel is a potential fuel source for the
transport sector.
43 Here we use the term biomass to indicate renewable sources based on organic material
(short-term carbon-neutral cycle). In this section we also characterise waste as biomass.
The non-fossil part of waste is considered as renewable biomass, and the fossil part, such
as plastics, is considered non-renewable. Although EU policy initially suggested that waste
incineration did not fall under biomass, after intensive lobbying of especially the Dutch, it
has accepted the organic fraction of waste as renewable energy.