Top Ten Publications 2018

The Wuppertal Institute has compiled a selection of their ten most important scientific publications of the year 2018. The peer-reviewed articles provide an insight into the current international recognised research activities and the transdisciplinary research approach of the institute.

Modeling and transdisciplinary methods

In order to understand the role of urban areas and their contribution to decarbonisation, in the sense of the authors of the divisions Future Energy and Mobility Structures and Energy, Transport and Climate Policy, it's necessary to take the respective context into account. Using a conceptual framework, they show how urban activities can contribute to a low-carbon future and, using the example of the city of Cologne, provide concrete options for urban-scale activities for regional and local government actors.

In his scientific paper Sascha Samadi (Division Future Energy and Mobility Structures) reviews the literature on the experience curve theory and its empirical evidence in the field of electricity generation technologies. Results show that for some electricity generation technologies, especially small-scale modular technologies, there has been a remarkably strong (negative) relationship between experience and cost for several decades.

In their paper a team of authors of the division Future Energy and Mobility Structures examined the discrepancy between the large number of decentralised energy projects implemented in developing and emerging countries and the limited knowledge of how these projects contribute to sustainable development. For this purpose, more than 30 small-scale sustainable energy projects projects were evaluated with regard to their impact. The results show the importance of taking social, cultural, economic and environmental aspects into account.

Despite the huge debate surrounding the potential of carbon capture storage (CSS) technology, the technology contributes relatively little to avoid greenhouse gas emissions. Applying bibliographic coupling by Dr. peter Viebahn, Co-Director of the Future Energy Mobility Structures Division at the Wuppertal Institute and Emile J. L. Chappin, Assistant Professor at Delft University of Technology, examined whether the current research is sufficient to meet these problems. They found that in research, technical issues clearly dominate compared to non-technical issues such as public perception or regulation (63 per cent).

Although definitions and understandings of the research approach "real-world laboratories" have been published, guidelines and procedural quality criteria for establishing and running a real-world laboratory are still missing. This research gap was closed by a team of authors (Division Sustainable Production and Consumption), based on an analysis of related and established research approaches, and transferred key characteristics into a comprehensive research practice.

Climate-, energy- and resources transition

What role do transnational actors such as city networks, business initiatives or associations of regions and states play in the negotiation processes for the climate conference? Answers to this question are provided by Lukas Hermwille, project manager in the Department of Energy, Transport and Climate Policy at the Wuppertal Institute, in his publication.

In order to improve the identification of low-energy households and ensure that tight local and national budgets provide relief to the most needy, area-based approaches can provide support for adequate policies. The analysis by Steven März (Division Energy, Transport and Climate Policy) offers insights into the spatial pattern of fuel poverty within a city (using the example of Oberhausen) and thus provides an opportunity to channel efforts towards households in those neighbourhoods most in need.

With the aim of identifying patterns of resource use related to German households' equipment, a team of authors from the division Sustainable Production and Consumption identified seven different household types and the associated resource use using a cluster analysis and a material flow calculation as well as the inclusion of socio-demographic data. The investigation showed, among other things, that patterns of resource use are mainly driven by the use of fuel and electricity and the ownership of cars.

Prepaid meters, which can be charged in the same way as mobile phones, may enable financially weak customers to have a better control of their electricity consumption and thus respond to the problem of energy poverty. A team of authors from the Division of Energy, Transport and Climate Policy have published a paper in which they present the results of Germany's first scientific survey on experiences with the use of prepaid meters.

Sectoral Transition: Mobility

The author Kain Glensor, Division Energy, Transport and Climate Policy at the Wuppertal Institute, has developed an index of accessibility-based vulnerability for transport-user, which considers both individual vulnerability aspects such as disability and the "multi-dimensionality" of vulnerability, Using the index, the city of Enschede showed that 1 to 54 per cent of the respondents have some level of vulnerability and 23 to 36 per cent of respondents can be considered to be vulnerable.

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