Power from above? Barriers to the implementation of catenary hybrid trucks

Abstract

In the Paris Agreement of 2015, the international community agreed to work on keeping the rise of global temperatures well under 2°C compared to pre-industrial times. To achieve this goal, green-house gas (GHG) emissions need to be drastically reduced within the next 30 years. The transport sector alone makes up almost a quarter of current annual GHG emissions and emissions in this sector could not be reduced over the last decades. Comparatively little research has been done on lower-emission technologies in the freight transport sector although this sector amounts for 20% of all transport emissions and is projected to continue to grow. One technology which is currently developed to combat the emission problem of the sector are catenary hybrid trucks (CHT). CHT describe systems where heavy freight trucks on highways are operated with electricity from overhead lines. The technology is now developed to where it can be used in real-world applications, but projects are still demonstrative in nature and it is not clear whether a widespread implementation will be success-ful under the current circumstances. This thesis project, therefore, investigated possible barriers to the implementation of CHT. Since prior research on CHT has been largely focusing on technological and economic factors, this was done with a focus on actors. Six actor-centric barriers for implementation were collected from the literature on multi-level perspective and technological innovation systems. The current situation around the technology was then assessed in a social network analysis and con-tent analysis based on data from publications, a survey, and interviews. The analysis showed that two of the six barriers were present. Expectations of niche actors which were supportive of the technology were not sufficiently overlapping and regime actors were found to resist change through different forms of power. This means that the found situation would have to be changed, if the goal were a successful implementation of the technology of CHT. To reduce or eliminate the two identified barri-ers, preliminary recommendations could be given. For an increase in the expectation overlap between niche actors, foresighting approaches and joint model building were presented as options. To reduce the strength of the current fossil-fuel based regime, technology bans or caps on CO2 emissions in truck fleets, carbon taxes, the reduction of subsidies for fossil-fuels, and the inclusion of more diverse actors into advisory councils were suggested as possibilities.