Thread by @ItnMistral

Hello everyone! This is @AlexMillerPerry. I am taking over the @ItnMistral account today to share some information about myself and my research. Let's get started!

My research project is titled “Social Acceptance, Path Dependency, and the Low Carbon Transition”. I am examining the role of path dependency in the transition from fossil fuel based electricity to renewable energy sources (particularly wind energy).

You may be wondering what I mean by path dependency. It’s a concept that has evolved in the academic literature to try and describe the influence of past events and decisions on contemporary processes.

For energy transitions, it means that we need to take history into account.

For example, the @IEA just announced that solar energy is now the cheapest source of electricity in the world. Why haven’t we transitioned to 100% solar?

Part of the answer lies in how path dependent systems constrain change.

https://twitter.com/wef/status/1318748908382769152

Energy system change comprises technical, economic, political, and social processes. Each of these processes are influenced by their respective historical evolution. Displacing incumbent technologies involves political struggle. @JaneAFlegal notes:

https://twitter.com/JaneAFlegal/status/1326192905791315969?s=19

Climate action and #energypolicy can take many forms and many paths.

I like this figure from @HannaBreetz, @mmildenberger,
and @leahstokes as an illustration of the policy options available to decision makers.

Each of these choices entails political struggles.

My research at @QUBelfast examines the energy transition in three countries: Canada, the UK, and Denmark.

I am using case studies of national and sub-national jurisdictions to understand the ways in which path dependency influences energy policy change over time.

The main focus of my research at the moment is the province of Ontario in Canada, which has seen the successful phase out of coal and increased deployment of renewable energy - although this has hardly been a smooth process!

#SocialAcceptance #WindEnergy #ONPoli

For more information on my thesis research I encourage you to watch my 3 minute summary here:

Each of the MISTRAL Early Stage Researchers have uploaded summaries of their research to the network's youtube channel: youtube.com/channel/UC703H…

That’s a wrap on my takeover – thanks for following along! We will be doing future takeovers with other ESRs, stay tuned for those.

Now it’s time for me to get back to reading, and for another cup of coffee!☕️

#PhDChat #AcademicTwitter #SciComm