2.4 Bringing it together: Energy productivity, transformation and value chains As noted earlier, energy productivity improvements can result from process innovations through to disruption and the transfer of entire production systems to new processes and goods and services. Therefore, changes that impact on multiple nodes within value chains that improve energy productivity can be seen occurring on a spectrum or within a hierarchy, including refining of processes, displaced demand, alternate provision through to disruption. The extent of energy productivity benefits will depend on where and how energy is used in value chains, and how changes affect value creation. It is also the case that not all changes to systems of production will result in energy productivity benefits, and some changes that result in energy productivity benefits may also increase energy demand. As the socio-technical transitions theory in Section 2.2.3 implies, the greater the scale and scope of the possible change the more resistance from the incumbent industries, social practices, and institutions that have coalesced around the existing regime also increases, unless they can adapt to a viable model or absorb the disruption. In these ways, disruption can also drive reactive innovation. The relationships between types of production and consumption changes, the scale of benefit and whether the change, is predominantly technical or social in nature are depicted in Figure 8. As indicated by the discussion above, this is a generalisation of these relationships, with the scales of outcomes identified through value chain analysis dependent on the structures of the industries and systems of production under investigation.
Figure 8. Energy productivity and process changes. Source: Authors, adapting Geels & Schot (2007).
Transforming energy productivity through value chains
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