5
(Sareen and Haarstad 2018; Vasconcelos 2018). Then, a scandal in another
ministry ahead of a national election year led to a cabinet reshuffle. The
emergence of a new ministry with a new minister of environment and
energy transition, as well as European Commission mandates, prompted
the launch of a national climate and energy policy and a national decarbonisation roadmap 2050 (Sareen in review). At the time of writing,
Portugal had scheduled solar capacity auctions for over 2 Giga Watts during 2019, and adopted a newly ambitious target that includes a tenfold
increase in solar energy capacity within a decade.
To those well versed with energy sector dynamics, ‘incumbency’ and
‘path dependence’ (Sovacool 2016; Lockwood et al. 2017) are terms that
will suggest themselves easily given the particular trajectory up to 2019,
and potentially also disruption to describe evolving circumstances (Winskel
2018). Portugal has a history of a veritable monopoly in its energy sector
by Energias de Portugal (EDP). Like many other countries, it moved from
electricity being a largely publicly held sector to increased privatisation
during the past quarter century. EDP remains an outsize vertically integrated player in this sector but is multinational and privately held. A great
deal of control over its own energy infrastructure has shifted out of
Portuguese hands of late with sustained interest by Chinese investors
(Pareja-Alcaraz 2017), not least during Portugal’s battle with economic
recession and European Union pressure during 2009–2015.
The sector has changed, but the memory of a particular mode of functioning maintains a stronghold in the mind of decision-makers (Delicado
et al. 2016). EDP is a major player in renewables—hydro and wind power
in Portugal—but its solar energy assets are held abroad rather than in
Portugal. Here, it has leveraged its presence in fossil fuel generation and
protected investments in thermal plants in the hope that these will turn
over a tidy profit for years hence. Timing is thus crucial in terms of who
stands to benefit from Portugal’s solar energy transition (Sareen et al.
2018). It is perhaps not all that surprising that so far there has been no
particular rush to implement a dramatic increase in solar uptake. After all,
things are running smoothly, Portugal is meeting European targets on
renewable energy, and a cash-strapped economy has competing priorities,
so why mess with a good enough energy sector? And yet, with the
announcement of solar auctions for summer 2019 by the government of
Portugal signalling a clear pathway, EDP publicly stated its interest in participating and submitting bids.
1 REFRAMING ENERGY TRANSITIONS AS RESOLVING ACCOUNTABILITY…
(Sareen and Haarstad 2018; Vasconcelos 2018). Then, a scandal in another
ministry ahead of a national election year led to a cabinet reshuffle. The
emergence of a new ministry with a new minister of environment and
energy transition, as well as European Commission mandates, prompted
the launch of a national climate and energy policy and a national decarbonisation roadmap 2050 (Sareen in review). At the time of writing,
Portugal had scheduled solar capacity auctions for over 2 Giga Watts during 2019, and adopted a newly ambitious target that includes a tenfold
increase in solar energy capacity within a decade.
To those well versed with energy sector dynamics, ‘incumbency’ and
‘path dependence’ (Sovacool 2016; Lockwood et al. 2017) are terms that
will suggest themselves easily given the particular trajectory up to 2019,
and potentially also disruption to describe evolving circumstances (Winskel
2018). Portugal has a history of a veritable monopoly in its energy sector
by Energias de Portugal (EDP). Like many other countries, it moved from
electricity being a largely publicly held sector to increased privatisation
during the past quarter century. EDP remains an outsize vertically integrated player in this sector but is multinational and privately held. A great
deal of control over its own energy infrastructure has shifted out of
Portuguese hands of late with sustained interest by Chinese investors
(Pareja-Alcaraz 2017), not least during Portugal’s battle with economic
recession and European Union pressure during 2009–2015.
The sector has changed, but the memory of a particular mode of functioning maintains a stronghold in the mind of decision-makers (Delicado
et al. 2016). EDP is a major player in renewables—hydro and wind power
in Portugal—but its solar energy assets are held abroad rather than in
Portugal. Here, it has leveraged its presence in fossil fuel generation and
protected investments in thermal plants in the hope that these will turn
over a tidy profit for years hence. Timing is thus crucial in terms of who
stands to benefit from Portugal’s solar energy transition (Sareen et al.
2018). It is perhaps not all that surprising that so far there has been no
particular rush to implement a dramatic increase in solar uptake. After all,
things are running smoothly, Portugal is meeting European targets on
renewable energy, and a cash-strapped economy has competing priorities,
so why mess with a good enough energy sector? And yet, with the
announcement of solar auctions for summer 2019 by the government of
Portugal signalling a clear pathway, EDP publicly stated its interest in participating and submitting bids.
1 REFRAMING ENERGY TRANSITIONS AS RESOLVING ACCOUNTABILITY…