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

134 Chapter 5
solutions is main concern: focus on security of supply and
nuclear power as solution
- R&D policy and orientation Single focus on nuclear R&D; nuclear research
institute plays core role; focus on securing energy
supply to facilitate industrial growth
4) Society
- mode of coordination Electricity is taken for granted, seen as public
provided good, system is intertwined with daily life
(‘electrification’)
- mode of communication Electricity system presented as objective, technical
reality; one way information flows to educate citizens
on use; technical responses in reaction to subjective
opinions (e.g. concerns regarding cooling water,
nuclear safety)
- perception of problems Rather low public scrutiny and involvement
regarding the workings of the system; main focus on
securing long-term and reliable supply
5.4 Foundations for change: understanding increased
attention for cogeneration
Corrosion of the growth paradigm of the existing system
Although the upturn in decentral cogeneration started to show from the
middle of the eighties, the stage was set by a range of earlier events and
developments that impacted basic aspects of the electricity system. Table 5.1
provides an overview of major policy milestones and other developments
that have impacted the course of cogeneration in the period 1972-1983.
What these developments had in common was that they corroded the takenfor-grantedness
of the existing sociotechnical configuration. The growth
paradigm 6 was increasingly challenged as the effects of two oil crises
unfolded, environmental concerns were voiced 7 , and national government
aimed to increase control on the electricity system. Instead of focusing on
6 In a report on nuclear energy in 1972, it was expected that demand would increase around
sevenfold up to 2000 and that half of this would be met by new nuclear capacity (TK,
1972: 2). In 1975, after the first oil crisis, the prognosis was adjusted to a fourfold increase
(TK, 1975). In reality, capacity just more than doubled from 1970 to 2000 (EnergieNed,
2001).
7 The report of the Club of Rome in 1972 worked as a catalyst for increasing concerns over
the environmental effects of industrial growth. Already in his 1970 annual speech for the
Association of Directors of Electricity Companies, Chairman De Roy van Zuydewijn
signalled an explosive increase in attention for environmental issues, and later that year he
was confronted with extensive media attention when an oil storage tank collapsed and
spilled oil in the river (Bläsing, 1992: 336-343).