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Abstract
How do climate and energy objectives influence the renewal of the role of network infrastructures in urban planning and the running of urban systems? The example of the revival of interest in district heating networks provides a few possible answers to this question, which is central to the understanding and characterization of the conditions for carrying out the urban energy transition. In this paper, we study this example by analyzing recent changes in French regulations and the process of creating an intercommunal energy-related competence in the Lyon metropolitan area. Emphasis is placed on the institutional and political conditions surrounding a change in governance as well as the underlying justifications in the reconsideration of an existing infrastructure in view of new energy, climate, and social challenges within a specific urban context. Our study has been carried out in reference to several discussions on urban planning and on institutional, political, and spatial factors that shape urban infrastructure regimes.
Note on Contributor
Laurence Rocher is lecturer in urban planning at the Institut d'Urbanisme de Lyon–Université Lumière Lyon 2 and member of the research laboratory CNRS UMR 5600 Environnement, Ville, Société. She holds a degree and a PhD (Tours University, 2006) in town and regional planning. Her research focuses on the social and spatial issues of environmental public policies (waste management, climate, and energy policies). Her work aims to understand the agenda setting of environmental problems, policy making, and implementation in local contexts, through ongoing fieldwork in France, Quebec, and Tunisia.
Notes
1. “The promotion of alternative, decentralized technologies is viewed by activists, experts, and policy makers on all levels as a promising pathway to low carbon cities, even though it remains an open question as to whether and under what conditions urban planning increasingly based on these technologies would be more likely to promote low carbon urbanism than planning based on traditional, centralized infrastructure networks” (Coutard and Rutherford, Citation2011: 107).
2. For J. Monstadt (Citation2009: 1937), factors that “should be included in urban regime analysis {are} The existing technostructure used in the production of infrastructure services, the resource flows mediated by them, the existing built environment and the physical geography of an urban region, the social organization of the urban production and use of infrastructure services, the institutional and spatial governance structure of urban infrastructure.”
3. According to a 2007 inventory by the National District Heating Association, the 425 heating and cooling networks with a capacity of more than 3.5 MW rely on 69 percent fossil fuels and 26 percent renewable and recovered energy sources (comprising 76 percent waste incineration, 11 percent geothermal energy, and 6 percent wood fuel), mostly in a combined manner. There are also smaller, lower-capacity networks, most of which rely on biomass energy. Sixty percent of heat delivered is intended for the residential sector and 40 percent goes to the tertiary sector, especially hospitals and schools. More than half of the 1.2 million homes covered are located in social housing estates, and account for 17 percent of the latter (Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development, and Land Use Planning, Directorate General for Energy and Climate, Report pursuant to Article 50 of the Planning Act of 13 July 2005 setting forth energy policy goals, Multiyear Investment Plan for Heat Production, 2009–2020).
4. Act no. 80-531 of July 15, 1980 on energy savings and heat use
5. Based on estimates by the Multiyear Investment Plan for Heat Production and the energy working groups prior to the “Grenelle Environment Roundtable.”
6. Furthermore, the classification process requires the monitoring of amounts of energy delivered, a balanced budget during the amortization period as well as sustainability of R&R sources, given foreseeable pricing terms and conditions (LOI n° 2010-788 du 12 juillet 2010 portant engagement national pour l'environnement, art. 85).
7. Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport, and Housing, Decree No. 2012-394 of 23 March 2012 on the classification of heating and cooling networks.
8. Greater Lyon comprises 58 communes and 1.2 million inhabitants. The following fall within its competence: road infrastructures, distribution of drinking water and wastewater treatment, collection and treatment of household refuse, transport and parking infrastructures, drawing up of urban planning documents (Local Urban Development Plans, master plans), housing, social housing, public spaces, key public facilities, territorial economic development plans, technopolitan sites, establishment of firms, land reserves, abattoirs, wholesale markets, and building and extension of cemeteries.
9. 2009 diagnosis followed in 2011 by scenarios then action plan (Grand Lyon, 2009, 2011a, 2011b).
10. Greater Lyon, Intercommunal Council Proceedings No. 2011-2407, 12 September 2011.
11. In the Lyon metropolitan area, gas and electricity distribution and public lighting are managed by two main intercommunal associations: the Syndicat intercommunal de gestion des énergies de la région lyonnaise (SIGERLy), and the Syndicat départemental d’énergies du Rhône (SYDER).
12. The aim is to increase wood-based power generation from 30 MW in 2008 (8 percent of the power consumed by the heating networks) to 160 MW in 2020 (42 percent).
13. CETE: Centre d'Etudes Techniques de l'Equipement; CERTU: Centre d’étude sur les réseaux, les transports, l'urbanisme et les constructions publiques; ADEME: Agence de l'environnement et de la maîtrise de l’énergie; AMORCE: Association nationale des collectivités, des associations et des entreprises pour la gestion des déchets, de l’énergie et des réseaux de chaleur.
14. “[T]he question is, what missions and role does the Urban Authority wish to assume given the structural changes related to the opening up of the European electricity market, the deregulation of electricity and gas prices and the increase in the number of operators, alongside a constant rise in consumption and an underlying trend of increasing energy prices, which in the current economic crisis has resulted in a situation of growing fuel poverty? Indeed, the urban authority appears to be the right administrative level for taking into account the economic, social, technical and financial challenges posed by the energy issue, insofar as it can propose harmonization and regulatory measures and improve the diversification of energy—especially renewable energy—in accordance with the characteristics of its territory. Given this perspective, it appears that it is essential for the Urban Authority of Lyon to define a strategic framework that includes the involvement of all actors in the territory, and to employ all necessary means” (Greater Lyon, Extract from Intercommunal Council meeting proceedings. 12 September 2011, Proceedings No. 2011-2407).
15. The “zero carbon” objective of the Lyon Confluence project is to achieve a 2020 greenhouse gas emissions level identical to that in 2000, despite the arrival of 8,000 new inhabitants and 20,000 workers.
16. See e.g., Direction régionale et interdépartementale de l'environnement et de l’énergie (Citation2012), about Paris region.