Energy System Lock-In

If someone asked you why it’s so hard to decarbonize the electricity sector, what would you say? Maybe you think we haven’t found the right combination of technologies yet. Maybe you’d argue that we lack the political will to change. Or maybe it’s the economic or social sides of the equation. How about all of the above?

This episodes explores several influential papers on technological lock-in, with a special focus on nuclear, cars, learning by doing, and network effects.

Works referenced:

• Gregory Unruh, Understanding carbon lock-in (2000) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301421500000707
• Robin Cowen, Nuclear Power Reactors: A Study in Technological Lock-in (1990) https://www.jstor.org/stable/2122817
• Richard Perkins, Technological “lock-in” (2003) https://www.isecoeco.org/pdf/techlkin.pdf
• Arrow, The Economic Implications of Learning by Doing, 1962: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2295952 Terraform Industries - https://terraformindustries.com/
• NET Power - https://netpower.com/

Timestamps:

• 00:00-Intro
• 01:00-Technological Lock-in
• 01:30-Carbon Lock-in (Gregory Unruh, 2000)
• 02:20-Natural Gas Concerns
• 03:00-Terraform Industries & Net Power
• 03:35-Nuclear PWR Lock-In (Robin Cowen, 1990)
• 05:20-Early Nuclear Policy and Subsidy Help
• 07:00-Learning by Doing for Nuclear
• 07:20-Steam Cars vs Gas vs Electric
• 08:30-HORSES
• 09:14-Network Effects (Perkins, 2003)
• 10:25-Learning by Doing (Kenneth Arrow, 1962)
• 14:00-Future of Energy Systems
• 16:00-Lock In