For Peat’s Sake: Addressing the Barriers and Bridges to a Transition Away from Peat Energy in Finland’s District Heating Sector
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2021
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Management and International Business (MIB)
Language
en
Pages
89
Series
Abstract
Low carbon energy transitions offer pathways to sustainable futures. In Finland’s district heating sector (DH), the combustion of peat as a fuel source has been a hotly contested debate. While some support peat as a cheap, supply-secure source of domestic energy, others point towards its high level of carbon emissions. In the face of the increasing carbon emissions price under the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and the Finnish Government’s goal to be carbon neutral by 2035, the DH sector has felt increasing pressure in recent years to switch to non-combustible sources of energy. This thesis is inspired by the continued use of peat energy despite the 2035 target date. By using one of the leading theories on sociotechnical change, this thesis incorporates the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) into the theoretical framework for understanding the barriers that confront a transition away from peat-use in Finland’s district heating sector, and how they can be overcome. The literature review discusses the historical appeal and policy support for peat-use in DH. It then provides an overview of transition theories by describing the fundamental tenets of the MLP. The empirical findings are derived from interviews with Members of The Parliament of Finland from the Centre Party and the Greens League, a policy advisor for the Left Alliance, the CEO of a bioenergy advocacy, a peat energy government working group representative, and an energy production lobbyist. The data was collected from these informants then sorted through a coding analysis, where their insights were bifurcated into either “barriers” or “ways to overcome” the barriers (WTOs). The findings show that there were twelve barriers and seven distinct WTO clusters identified in the interviews. The barriers reflect the embeddedness of peat-use in DH, but the WTO clusters offer both niche-nurturing and regime-destabilizing solutions to these barriers. The prevailing contribution of this thesis is in finding that the scaling speed and diffusion of non-combustible alternative technologies will determine the rate of the transition away from peat, but the existent EU-level and national public policy mechanisms to help in this regard are currently lacking. This means that DH is in a crucial position to quickly diffuse these alternatives through the window of opportunity they currently occupy before the imprudent and impending increased use of biomass and wood-burning takes over.Description
Thesis advisor
Temmes, ArmiJuntunen, Jouni
Keywords
District Heating, Peat Energy, Climate Change, Sustainability Transitions, Sociotechnical Transitions, Energy Transitions, Low Carbon, Non-Combustible