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Energy demand

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSNChapter

Published
Publication date21/05/2019
Host publicationEnergy Fables: Challenging Ideas in the Energy Sector
EditorsJenny Rinkinen, Elizabeth Shove, Jacopo Torriti
PublisherRoutledge
Pages7-14
Number of pages8
ISBN (electronic)9780429674242
ISBN (print)9780367027759
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Energy demand, usually indicated by the amount of energy currently consumed in different sectors, is a key factor in national and international energy and climate change policy. In the energy world, demand has different meanings and associations: it often figures as the logical partner to ‘supply’; it is tied to interpretations of ‘need’; and it is the subject of various forms of intervention, including methods of ‘demand side’ management. In this chapter we distinguish between definitions that (a) interpret demand as the energy required to meet current and future needs and (b) those that take energy demand to be inseparable from the constitution of energy services and social practices. The latter position highlights the ongoing dynamics of demand and the part that policy makers and others play in establishing and changing what people do and the energy requirements that follow.