Publisher:
Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg
This report develops a sociotechnical understanding of energy prosumerism to investigate how energy prosumerism, as an alternative production and consumption pattern, can lead to actual reductions of energy and material resource demand. The report...
more
ZBW - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft, Standort Kiel
Inter-library loan:
No inter-library loan
This report develops a sociotechnical understanding of energy prosumerism to investigate how energy prosumerism, as an alternative production and consumption pattern, can lead to actual reductions of energy and material resource demand. The report starts out by explaining what a sociotechnical perspective entails and what is meant by prosumerism. Thereafter, the report discusses how energy implications of prosumerism can be enlightened by the concepts of use value and sharing as well as by the study of historical changes that occurred in the delegation to machines and by studies in the area of thermodynamics and social metabolism. Then, it summarises already existing sociotechnical research on renewable energy generation and domestic energy use, focusing in particular on energy communities. The different types of energy communities can represent specific types of sociotechnical innovations whose role in the energy transition and whose environmental, social and economic impacts are still object of study and debate. Thus, it is critical to clarify how new forms of prosumerism represented by collectives of citizens actively involved in energy production, consumption and distribution, are progressively gaining a relevant role in the energy transition. For example, it becomes important to achieve a better understanding of the meaning and typologies of existing energy communities, how these communities relate to new forms of governance and citizen involvement, to new business and financial models, to technological innovations, and how it can be expected they will contribute to the energy transition. The report discusses in particular how, over the past decades, community energy has taken many forms: from projects 100% owned by local communities to others that imply a co-ownership with the private sector and/or local authorities. The report then delves into the matter of energy sustainability by explicating the concept of sufficiency and how it can allow achieving actual reductions instead of continued escalations of energy use. Finally, it concludes with the main findings that a broader and more nuanced understanding of energy prosumerism can provide a novel conceptualisation relating to energy provision and everyday life that can lead to future reductions in energy use, as well as to a more multifaceted policy response that moves away from business as usual and towards more variegated and radical propositions for achieving sustainable energy use in the future.
