Introduction. There are more than 313 local energy initiatives in the Netherlands. In the changing energy landscape, these community based local energy ...
CO-RISE PROJECT
LOCAL ENERGY COMMUNITIES: RESPONSIBLE INNOVATION TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE ENERGY BinodPrasad Koirala and Ellen van Oost | Department of Science, Technology and Policy Studies | Faculty of Behavioral , Managementand Social Sciences
Introduction
There are more than 313 local energy initiatives in the Netherlands. In the changing energy landscape, these community based local energy initiatives are posed to play significant role in the energy transition. The technical and social innovation becomes inevitable as the social, economic and institutional relations between different actors changes in the complex socio-technical setting of the community energy systems as shown in Fig.1. The main objective of this ambitious project is to align social and technical innovation through investigating the innovative potential of local energy initiatives in terms of technology, social embeddedness and normativity as well as researching the innovative potential of emerging sustainable energy technologies, including their social and normative dimensions.
External environment Government, legislation, regulation, national energy market, national grid, intermediaries
Local actor network Households, communities, housing corporations, energy suppliers, aggregators, system operators, local market operators, technology providers, municipalities Local physical system Distributed energy resources, energy storage technologies, energy management system, local energy exchange platform, physical and communication network, buildings
Figure 1. Community energy as complex sociotechnical systems in the wider context
Research Questions
The main research questions addressed in this project are: 1) What transformative role can local energy co-operatives play in the transition towards sustainable and inclusive society? 2) How can the energy innovations be developed and implemented to enable and enhance the transformative capacity of the local communities?
Research Design and Methods
The project draws on varied academic fields such as innovation studies, philosophy and social studies, history, information science as well as energy and environmental science. Theories such as strategic niche management and multi-level perspectives are used. The project is divided into three sub-projects as shown in Fig. 2.
Sub-project 1 Historical and comparative analysis of local energy co-operatives
Methods: Studies of Dutch collectives in common goods management, multi-level perspective analysis, comparative study of Dutch situation with international context
Sub-project 2 Use and articulation of community energy storage Methods: embedded case studies, interviews, script analysis and interactive co-creative articulation processes
Sub-project 3 Future scenarios of sustainable energy systems Methods: scenario studies based on insight from sub-project 1 and 2, interviews, interactive stakeholders workshops, uncertainty analysis.
Figure 2. Sub-projects and research methods
Outcomes and Impacts
This project aims to deliver building blocks for a sustainable, inclusive, and community-based smart energy systems. Scientific Impact Combines historical analysis, social analysis and technoscientific approach to socio-technical systems. Relates theories of commons to multi-level and innovation theories. Alignment of technical, demand and cultural articulation in responsible innovation.
Acknowledgements
Societal Impact Combines technical and social innovation, developing new business and organization models in energy system. Articulation of stakeholders engagement. Articulation of normative positions. Outlines opportunities and limitations as well as a governance roadmap for autarkic local energy systems.
CO-RISE project is funded through the social responsible innovation program of The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO-MVI 2016 [313-99-304]). We would also like to acknowledge our academic and industrial partners.
Industrial partners
Academic partners
