Sustainable Energy Transitions and Regional Growth Paths in the North Sea Basin: A Comparative analysis of North East Scotland and Southern Denmark

Renewable energy technologies have become a central component
of national and global policy frameworks, heralded as a key solution
to the global climate crisis and as a source of green growth. Yet there is comparatively little research on the economic geographies
associated with the transition to renewable energy, and their role in
the development of novel regional growth paths. This project
contributes to growing debates within evolutionary economic
geography (EEG) and sustainable transitions research (STR) on
processes of local and regional path creation and regional economic
branching within the context of sustainable energy transitions. It will
investigate three RQs via a conceptually-engaged case-study
analysis of the regional growth paths of North East Scotland and
Southern Denmark: (1) how national, supra-national and regional
policy and institutional frameworks have enabled and constrained
energy transition processes within the two regions; (2) how regional
energy firms and organisations are fostering energy transitions and
creating new growth paths; and (3) how the two regions are situated
in emerging energy production networks in the North Sea basin.
This project is supported by a collaborative partner - Port Esbjerg -
and will be researched through a combination of questionnaires,
semi-structured interviews, and documentary analysis. These
methods will be grounded in a critical realist framework that
emphasises the importance of spatial differentiation and historical
contingency. Outputs of this study will contribute to EEG and STR
energy transition research and increasing green growth policy
architecture in the UK and Denmark.