POWERING UP COASTAL ECONOMIES: PATH DEVELOPMENT IN LOW CARBON AND RENEWABLE ENERGY INDUSTRIES

Lead Research Organisation: University of Southampton
Department Name: Sch of Geography & Environmental Sci

Abstract

Low carbon and renewable energy (LCRE) industries are central to the Net Zero challenge. An apparent political consensus has been forged around the idea that investments in LCREs have the potential to contribute to regionally balanced growth. Coastal areas are seen as particularly advantageous for this development, as companies can build on combined human, physical and natural capital assets. While the growth of LCREs represents a new opportunity for wider geographies of growth, its realization will depend on place-based and place-sensitive policy support. LCRE industries have become central to the local and regional development strategies of coastal regions of the UK. However, despite recent work on the geographies of UK energy transition and the growth of renewables, we still know relatively little about how LCRE industries become established and are developed and supported, especially in coastal regions.

The aim of the research is to examine, for the first time, how and why the growth of LCREs varies across coastal regions, by exploring and comparing the development trajectories of key industries (offshore wind, tidal, hydrogen and carbon capture, battery and storage technologies) in four varied coastal regions (the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside, Eastern Scotland and the South West). It will examine the strength and nature of clusters in these industries and study the interactions between different industries in these clusters. The project will focus on how local leaders, policy agents and entrepreneurs use assets, resources, and institutions to shape the geographies and development trajectories of LCRE industries. It will develop a new perspective on the dynamic processes that shape the development of these new industry paths and how they vary across places. It will also examine the local outcomes and consequences of different industries and the intended impact of the project is to identify and improve the types of place-sensitive policies and support measures required to build the growth of new industrial paths. It will build networks and exchanges across the study regions to share experiences and learning.

In each of our study regions, the focus is on the key coastal sites of LCRE development such as Teesside, the Humber, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire and coastal Devon, but also involves firms that are outside of these primary clusters. Adopting this regional and sectoral focus allows us to construct a programme that compares different regions and enables us to compare LCRE industries both within and across regions. The project will involve three work packages. The first will examine path formation and provide evidence about the emerging LCRE sectors in our four case study regions, set within the broader context of geographical data of emerging LCRE sectors. The second will explain path causation by looking at the causal processes and actors shaping the differential growth of LCRE paths in the case study regions. The third package will identify developmental outcomes by seeking to identify the impacts and consequences of the development of selected LCRE growth paths for their host regions. The project will then allow us to shape local and national policy and practice in bringing together the levelling up and net zero missions.

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