ABSTRACT
Drawing from decades of our collective experiences working on renewable energy and energy-related responses to climate change. This chapter identifies three sets of key risk conundrums associated with the renewable energy transition: conundrums associated with timescale, conundrums related to spatial scale, and conundrums associated with resistance and opposition which relate to perceptions of winners and losers. It explores these risk conundrums with a focus primarily on industrialized nations, providing context-specific examples from Europe and North America. The chapter recognizes how dynamic and uncertain the transition is, and emphasize the context-specific nature of perceptions of risk associated with energy system change. It intentionally takes an optimistic view of these risk conundrums highlighting the opportunities and potential societal benefits of the renewable energy transition, while also acknowledging the many challenges. The renewable energy transition includes potential for distributing political and financial power as well as electrical power.
