This article refines our understanding of frugal innovation in geographical energy transitions research. Frugal innovation represents a strategic approach to solving local problems with limited resources through complexity reduction. The article analyses three frugal innovation cases from São Paulo, Brazil. For each case, the analysis focuses on specific resource-constrained local context conditions, actors’ frugal approaches to overcoming these conditions and multi-scalar resource mobilisation strategies to scale frugal solutions. The article concludes by identifying three roles of frugality in energy transitions: (i) outcome complexity reduction enables scalable model solutions; (ii) process complexity reduction enables industrially scalable production; (iii) a philosophy of complexity reduction enables scalable dissemination strategies.

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能源转型中的节俭创新：来自巴西太阳能案例的见解

本文提炼了我们对地理能源转型研究中节俭创新的理解。节俭创新代表了一种通过降低复杂性以有限资源解决当地问题的战略方法。文章分析了来自巴西圣保罗的三个节俭创新案例。对于每种情况，分析都侧重于特定的资源受限的当地环境条件、参与者克服这些条件的节俭方法以及多尺度资源调动战略以扩大节俭解决方案的规模。本文最后确定了节俭在能源转型中的三个作用：（i）降低结果复杂性可实现可扩展的模型解决方案；(ii) 工艺复杂性降低使工业规模化生产成为可能；(iii) 降低复杂性的理念能够实现可扩展的传播策略。