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Heterogeneous energy infrastructures in Europe: layering and orchestrating Positive Energy Districts
Urban Design and Planning, Department of Architecture and the Built Environment, Lund University.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0688-9547
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Ixelles, Belgium.
Linköping University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Linköping University, Department of Thematic Studies, Technology and Social Change.
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria.
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2025 (English)In: Sustainability Science, ISSN 1862-4065, E-ISSN 1862-4057Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Sustainable development
Climate Improvements
Abstract [en]

Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) have rapidly emerged as a dominant policy instrument in Europe to accelerate urban climate transitions. PEDs target the district scale to optimise energy system performance through a combination of technical and social interventions. These activities are driven by an engineering logic that considers energy infrastructures to be rational, integrated, and governable. In practice, PED stakeholders engage with heterogeneous infrastructure configurations that are influenced by multiple historical, political, and social specificities. In this article, we use the notion of ‘sociotechnical dispositif’ to characterise the processes of reconstituting the heterogeneous infrastructures of three PEDs in Sweden, Belgium, and Austria. We compare and contrast processes of layering the components in each district as well as processes of orchestrating stakeholders towards shared end goals. The findings contribute to critical infrastructure studies by revealing how European policy ambitions for energy transformation collide with heterogeneous infrastructures and by identifying the situated, contingent, and emergent characteristics of reconfiguring infrastructures at the district scale. The study of layering and orchestrating also highlights opportunities for PED stakeholders to develop and practice new forms of decentralised governance within each district that have the potential to influence broader urban transformations.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer Nature , 2025.
National Category
Science and Technology Studies Human Geography
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-213118DOI: 10.1007/s11625-025-01676-wISI: 001463080600001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105002322711OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-213118DiVA, id: diva2:1953062
Funder
Swedish Energy Agency, 51826-1Swedish Energy Agency, 51826-1Swedish Energy Agency, 51826-1Lund University
Note

Funding Agencies|Energimyndigheten

Available from: 2025-04-17 Created: 2025-04-17 Last updated: 2025-04-24

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
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  • de-DE
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Output format
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