Abstract

Solutions to the climate and energy crises will likely involve large scale renewable energy technology deployment and of renewable energy technologies in building energy systems and transportation systems. But they will also require changes in lifestyle, behavior, and social organization. Solar heating and bicycle use are well-developed technologies that exemplify social-technological hybrids. Davis, California, has established a national reputation as a bike-friendly city and has been an international leader in supporting energy efficient housing developments. Support, however, has waxed and waned over the years. Davis provides an ideal case study to explore the conditions necessary to develop a sustained community commitment to passive solar design and human powered transport at a scale large enough to make a difference. This analysis points to the importance of local politics, municipal identity tied to an energy or environmental vision, and the organization of social capital to influence broad-based technological choice.Key words: solar heating, bicycle lanes, social capital, behavior, environmental politics.

Highlights

  • The prospect of catastrophic climate change combined with recently revived concerns about energy independence, fuel prices, and environmental destruction have brought renewed public discussion of such technologies as wind farms, solar power plants, biofuels, nuclear power, and coal gasification

  • The current energy crisis involves dependence on oil from unfriendly and unstable countries, pollution from the combustion of fossil fuels, ravaged landscapes from the extraction of fossil fuels, and a global ecosystem that has passed its threshold for accommodating continued economic growth

  • Studies that have focused on social or psychological factors related to energyconservation have shown that values, worldviews and attitudes toward the environment significantly affect the adoption of energy conserving technologies and behaviors (Black et al 1985; De Young 1993; Gardner and Stern 2002; Georg 1999; Olsen 1983; Poortinga et al 2003; Stern 1992)

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Summary

Introduction

The prospect of catastrophic climate change combined with recently revived concerns about energy independence, fuel prices, and environmental destruction have brought renewed public discussion of such technologies as wind farms, solar power plants, biofuels, nuclear power, and coal gasification (this time with carbon capture as an additional consideration). During the 1970s and early 1980s there were a number of attempts to create collective action solutions to behavior change and to create social, civic, and technological infrastructures to support local sustainable energy economies These attempts in the USA ranged from very small "communes" to broader urban and regional planning efforts. This article examines the Davis case with a focus on two types of renewable energy; human powered transport and solar heat They were chosen as useful examples because the technologies in both cases are simple, well developed, applied at the individual or household level, and can have very high immediate impacts on the consumption of fossil energy and resulting greenhouse gas emissions. I discuss resonances with other cases and the translatability of lessons from the Davis cases to other locations and scales

Context
The case
Bike city
Economics
Demography
Solar City
Discussion
10. Resonances within the energy and transportation sectors
11. Broader resonances
Findings
12. Ecologies of Hope

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