From the Lab to the Industrial Park: Lessons for the Energy Transition from Past Technology Policy Failures

Production, distribution and use of natural gas in commercial and domestic settings is a well-established industry with an excellent public safety record in Australia despite the inherent risks. The industry faces a significant challenge in maintaining this in the escalating energy transition. Emerging technologies for hydrogen and other future fuels will move rapidly from bespoke, experimental, lab-based facilities to full-scale, manufactured, process plant with the necessary resources (both physical and human) stretched to the limit. A large effort in engineering research is targeting solutions to the myriad of technical issues that must be addressed, but too often we overlook the sociotechnical risks to public safety that must also be managed for the transition to be successful. This paper addresses such risks. Sociotechnical risks arise at all levels from government policy, through regulation, organizations, risks that arise from the capabilities, affordances, and constraints of the technology, risks that are epistemic in nature, and collective values, norms, and practices. We trace each of these sources of risk as they relate to the energy transition drawing on past cases of emergent technologies and failure cases for clues as to how such outcomes might be avoided.

Keywords: Emerging technologies, Sociotechnical risk, Hydrogen.