The emerging field of sustainability science recognizes the important role of technologies in reaching the conditional goals of sustainable development. Research in sustainable technologies requires transdisciplinarity to determine the resilience, adaptive capacity, and complexity of social-ecological systems to assess the potential of such technologies for increasing the carrying capacity and improving the resilience of social-ecological systems, or to assess the resilience of the technological system to demands from the social-ecological systems. This paper introduces a model to prioritize assessable sustainability performance indicators to manage alternative energy technologies following the principles of sustainability science. The model is based on the Kolb learning cycle, and thereby acknowledges the vital need for continual interaction between different entities and components of typical social-ecological systems, where specific technologies are to be introduced, to understand the key interactions within the sub-systems, also termed holons, that need to be assessed. The model is demonstrated with a case study in a rural village of South Africa, where an integrated alternative energy technological system was implemented. The application of the prioritized indicators is compared with the perceived overall performance of the technological system. The study confirms that an increased understanding of the principles of sustainability science may improve the assessment of sustainability performances of alternative energy technological interventions during the design stages of the technology life cycles. Further research is required to adapt conventional technology assessment methods and metrics; recommendations are made accordingly
Reference:
Brent, AC. 2009. Principles of sustainability science to assess alternative energy technologies. International Association for Management of Technology Conference (IAMOT 2009), Orlando, Florida, USA, 5 - 9 April 2009, pp 15
Brent, A. (2009). Principles of sustainability science to assess alternative energy technologies. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/3385
Brent, AC. "Principles of sustainability science to assess alternative energy technologies." (2009): http://hdl.handle.net/10204/3385
Brent A, Principles of sustainability science to assess alternative energy technologies; 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/3385 .
Author:West, NJ; Jandrell, IR; Forbes, ADate:Aug 2008The aim of this paper is to compare the electrical performance of an orthogonally with a coaxially laser-triggered spark gap. Each of these two gaps has its own advantages and disadvantages. At the same time, a Rogowski profile spark gap was ...Read more
Author:Musango, Josephine K; Brent, ACDate:Mar 2011Technology assessment has changed in nature over the last four decades from an analytical tool for technology evaluation, which depends heavily on quantitative and qualitative modelling methodologies, into a strategic planning tool for policy ...Read more
Author:Mwapwele, SD; Marais, Mario A; Dlamini, Sifiso B; Van Biljon, JDate:Dec 2019The South Africa Connect national broadband policy of 2013 aims to ensure that the country achieves universal internet access by 2030, thereby fostering digital skills development. This study investigates one dimension of the South Africa ...Read more