The transition to a low-carbon economy – focusing on deployment, local learning and soft cost of low-carbon technologies in Sweden

Cost reductions in low-carbon technologies is an important driver for the transition to a low-carbon society.

Whereas studies of such cost reductions often focus on core energy technologies, relatively little attention has been paid to the cost related to the deployment of technologies, so called soft costs.

To broaden and deepen our understanding of the cost dynamics of low-carbon technologies we need to go beyond the research on core technologies and develop robust empirical knowledge related to processes of deployment, local learning, soft costs and local deployment policies.

The aim of this project is to advance our understanding on deployment, local learning and soft costs – this in two type of sociotechnical systems - energy efficient buildings and building-sited PV systems in Sweden.

Understanding the territory of local learning is important in order to advance our knowledge on how to design policy instruments effecting and accelerating technical change.