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

Conclusions 221
taken place at a cross-national level as national electricity markets opened.
This system is also deriving legitimacy based on high expectations for
integration of large-scale renewable energy resources such as off-shore wind
farms, co-combustion of coal-fired power plants with biomass and biomass
based power plants. Even the nuclear option might re-emerge in the light of
the Kyoto-protocol and long-term security of supply. On the other hand
liberalisation has triggered a range of new products, services and
technologies, frequently in combination with the shift towards an
information society, and sometimes at rather local demand-oriented scales.
Here a process towards integration of even more flexible and decentralised
systems is a possibility, such as micro-cogeneration at the level of
households. Along these two trends, we contend that cogeneration and green
electricity are rather firmly rooted and institutionalised in the current
electricity system and wider fields of society. Liberalisation has ended the
highly favourable climate for cogeneration, but institutions, rules and the
energy saving paradigm has stabilised its position within the electricity
system and broader institutional arrangements. On the other hand,
liberalisation has stimulated the market for green electricity although its
sustainability profile has significantly weakened.
If we highlight the specific role of policies and policy actors in the cases of
green electricity and cogeneration we argue that policy action has been too
much blinded by the evolving institutional logics and its apparent success,
which led to reinforcing already existing positive feedbacks in the short
term, while loosing sight of opportunities to develop and maintain long-term
conditions for the concepts such as to redirect the system of electricity
production and consumption onto a more sustainable course. The effect of
fundamental institutional change, liberalisation, has led to a redefinition of
institutional logics in both cases and has been underestimated. Leverage
potential in the path towards a more sustainable electricity system has not
been fully exploited.
8.4 Revisiting theoretical approaches
This section reviews appropriateness of a range of theoretical approaches
that were presented in chapters two and three in the light of the empirical
analysis of change in the electricity system.
Rogers’ diffusion of innovations
Rogers’ (1995) work synthesises studies about the diffusion of innovations
and has developed conceptual frameworks for understanding innovation