Technologies of Engagement: How Battery Storage Technologies Shape Householder Participation in Energy Transitions

Sanneke Kloppenburg, Robin Smale and Nick Verkade
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Sanneke Kloppenburg: Wageningen University, Environmental Policy Group, Leeuwenborch, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands
Robin Smale: Wageningen University, Environmental Policy Group, Leeuwenborch, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands
Nick Verkade: Eindhoven University of Technology, School of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, Room 2.04, PO Box 513, 1600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 22, 1-15

Abstract: The transition to a low-carbon energy system goes along with changing roles for citizens in energy production and consumption. In this paper we focus on how residential energy storage technologies can enable householders to contribute to the energy transition. Drawing on literature that understands energy systems as sociotechnical configurations and the theory of ‘material participation’, we examine how the introduction of home batteries affords new roles and energy practices for householders. We present qualitative findings from interviews with householders and other key stakeholders engaged in using or implementing battery storage at household and community level. Our results point to five emerging storage modes in which householders can play a role: individual energy autonomy; local energy community; smart grid integration; virtual energy community; and electricity market integration. We argue that for householders, these storage modes facilitate new energy practices such as providing grid services, trading, self-consumption, and sharing of energy. Several of the storage modes enable the formation of prosumer collectives and change relationships with other actors in the energy system. We conclude by discussing how householders also face new dependencies on information technologies and intermediary actors to organize the multi-directional energy flows which battery systems unleash. With energy storage projects currently being provider-driven, we argue that more space should be given to experimentation with (mixed modes of) energy storage that both empower householders and communities in the pursuit of their own sustainability aspirations and serve the needs of emerging renewable energy-based energy systems.

Keywords: battery storage technologies; energy practices; public participation; householders; socio-technical transitions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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