ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Sustainability in the context of energy systems. The permanent availability of relatively cheap and abundant energy is a key characteristic of modern industrialised societies. At the same time, this backbone of modern societies has massive social and environmental consequences not only because incumbent energy systems are to a significant extent based on fossil and nuclear energy sources. The problem of climate change is only the most prominent Sustainability aspect in this context. Therefore, many see the transformation of energy systems as key for greater Sustainability. The chapter starts by outlining the formation and key characteristics
of contemporary energy systems. Then, it points to several problems of unsustainability based on incumbent practices of energy production and consumption. Due to the complexity of energy systems and due to their ubiquity in modern life, a comprehensive discussion of all related environmental and social problems would be beyond the scope of this book, if it were possible at all. Therefore, we outline only a selection of significant issues to provide an impression of the larger picture. Moreover, particular unsustainability problems can be related to various specific
responses, which can, for example, emphasise different aspects and analyses of the problem, prioritise different strategies and activities, and draw on different understandings of Sustainability in the field of energy. Therefore, it is equally impossible to present the multiple understandings and practices of Sustainability in their entirety. Instead, the following discussion focuses on selected projects of Sustainability with regard to energy consumption and production in order to explore how this idea operates in this field. Particular attention is paid to the larger patterns outlined in Chapter 2, which will be traced throughout the chapter and contrasted with the exemplary projects of renewable energies, the quest for equal access to energy for all and finally the business case of sustainable energies. The discussion elucidates that Sustainability, understood as a precept to respect ecological limits, can at least implicitly be observed in projects that emerged around the utilisation of renewable energies. While equity has been emphasised in the understanding of Sustainability formulated in the Brundtland Report and is still an important value in various projects, recent approaches to sustainable energy are set on the understanding of Sustainability as a business case, seeking to balance environmental and economic benefits.
