Multiple dimensions of disruption, energy transitions and industrial policy

In this perspective article, we critically explore ‘disruption’ in relation to sustainability transitions in the energy sector. Recognising significant ambiguity associated with the term, we seek to answer the question: What use has ‘disruption’ for understanding and promoting change towards low carbon energy futures. First, we outline that different understandings and dimensions of ‘system disruption’ exist with different linkages to institutional and policy change. This variety points out a need to research in more detail the particular effects of differing low-carbon innovations in terms of their disruptive consequences for whole socio-technical systems. Thus, disruption can be utilised as a useful conceptual tool for interrogating in more detail the ways in which energy systems are changing in particular contexts. Second, we reflect on the relationship between ‘green industrial policy’ and disruption. In some contexts ‘energy disruption’ has been facilitated by green industrial policy, and it would seem that the profound changes said to be on the horizon in terms of disruption are also a motivator of green industrial policy. New industrial policy can be an important way in which the negative consequences of disruptive change, such as job losses, can be managed and facilitated.