EXPERIMENTS FOR IDENTIFYING NECESSARY AND MISSING COMPETENCES FOR A SMART AND SUSTAINABLE ENERGY SYSTEM

The notion that we can learn from experiments is topical in current discussions on societal transitions for combating climate change. Within a socio-technical transitions approach, strategic niche management (SNM) conceives of local experiments within protected spaces as important initiators of learning and empowerment of new technologies. Transition management –a governance approach– views “local experiments” as central in a societal learning process for sustainability. Several countries – among them Finland – aim to develop a culture of experimentation in order to meet the sustainability and climate challenges of the future. This paper presents a new perspective on experiments and learning. Analytical studies on experiments, pilots, demonstrations and living labs show that experimental uses of new technologies can reveal missing competences. For example, demonstrations of building-applied solar energy technologies show how commissioning, maintenance, operation and use can be problematic due to missing services and missing competences in existing firms and among users (Janda and Parag 2013; Killip 2013; Janda et al. 2014; Heiskanen et al. 2015).We demonstrate our approach with Finnish examples from pilots, demonstrations and experiments in embedding smart energy - solar power and other intermittent energy sources, energy management, smart metering and grids – into real-life environments. Our data consist of 8 case studies, and workshops with the users of research results (public authorities, educational bodies, interaction designers). We show how such experiments can be used to identify missing competences and anticipate future education and usability needs, i.e., how to co-adapt technologies and users to a climate-constrained future world

Understanding the uneven diffusion of building-scale renewable energy systems : A review of household, local and country level factors in diverse European countries

This review focuses on renewable energy technology deployment in residential buildings, which is part of current targets to develop net-zero-carbon buildings in Europe and to promote the deployment of renewable energy. We focus on the adoption of four technologies: heat pumps, solar photovoltaics, solar thermal systems for domestic hot water and space heating, and advanced biomass heating. While there are several studies on households’ investment criteria, a research gap exists because building owners across Europe are quite diverse, and the European markets exhibit different stages of maturity. This article conducts a critical review of the literature on the diffusion of building-scale renewable energy solutions in order to answer the following questions: (1) to what extent can findings from studies on household adoption criteria be generalized from one country to another? and (2) what insights does the literature offer on factors that might explain the differences in adoption patterns between European countries?Peer reviewe

Policy Briefs at the National Level : Deliverable 7.2 of the CASI project

This CASI deliverable 7.2 first presents the issues examined and the process used in the national level policy briefs. Key insights from the policy briefs are presented next, followed by a reflection of the further analytical contributions of the outcomes. Finally, a concluding discussion includes an assessment of the usability of the policy brief process in future endeavours

Governance experiments in climate action : Empirical findings from the 28 European Union countries

Climate targets call for novel policy measures to facilitate widespread adoption of low-carbon solutions and innovations. The literature on socio-technical systems argues that experimentation has a prominent role in enabling sustainability transition. Experiments represent ways of testing new ideas and methods across a wide range of policy fields. Governance experiments in particular can support accelerated diffusion of new solutions, because they integrate policy with innovations. Here, types of success factors in the implementation of governance experiments to mitigate climate change are examined. Statistical analysis of sustainability innovations in the 28 European Union countries indicates that the types of success factors in governance experiments differ from those of product and social experiments. Governance experimentation is more positioned within socio-technical regimes than in strategic niches. These results suggest that governance experiments may indeed provide new transition opportunities towards low-carbon societies.Peer reviewe

Energise Living Lab Evaluation and Assessment Manual : Deliverable 3.5

This deliverable (D3.5) presents the ENERGISE Living Lab (ELL) evaluation and assessment manual, which is to serve as a Sustainability Assessment Toolkit (SAT) that includes output, outcome and impact indicators, as well as detailed methods for baseline definition and identification of rebound and spin-off effects. It also provides a draft version of evaluation tools to be refined on the basis of the ELL experiences and to be published for use by later projects in ENERGISE D3.6. Because of this, it consists largely of quantitative and standardized measures to be applied before and after the ELLs

Energise Living Labs Workshop Report : Deliverable 3.3

This report presents the discussions and outcomes of ENERGISE Living Labs workshop. The aim of the workshop was the co-creation and co-design of the ELLs with stakeholders that represent business and the public sector, including several organisations supporting local ELL implementation, in order to ensure the incorporation of as diverse as possible views in the design of the ELLs. The workshop was a key event in the design of the ELLs, therefore influencing the implementation of the ENERGISE project’s main task, the ELLs. A special focus in this report is on three questions that were the main topics of three co-creation sessions in the workshop: what will be tested in the ELLs, how to understand practices and their contexts and how to evaluate the sustainability of the ELLs. The valuable input from the expert panel members and other stakeholders feeds in the deliverables D3.4 (ENERGISE Living Labs intervention and engagement guidebook) and D3.5 (ENERGISE Living Lab evaluation and assessment manual) to be finalised after the workshop, as well as to the implementation and monitoring of the ELLs

ENERGISE Living Labs background report : Deliverable 3.2

A background report describes initial designs and target groups for ENERGISE Living Labs, and serves as background material for the Policy and Decision Forum (PDF)

Scalable designs and best-practice ENERGISE Living Labs for European energy cultures : Policy brief and recommendations

This short policy brief provides recommendations for policy makers on how to best engage households in changing their energy practice