Increasing solar entitlement and decreasing energy vulnerability in a low-income community by adopting the Prosuming Project

Nicolette Fox ()
Additional contact information
Nicolette Fox: University of Sussex

Nature Energy, 2023, vol. 8, issue 1, 74-83

Abstract: Abstract Rooftop solar panels could ease energy vulnerability concerns among households, particularly in the face of rising bills. However, few studies have explored the lived experiences of people with this technology. Here, I present findings from a ten-month study that followed seven households from a low-income community, who were given the opportunity to undertake prosuming—producing and consuming—of solar energy. Drawing on social practice theory and time geography, prosuming is analysed as a domestic project that has the potential to become embedded in everyday life by evolving across three temporal stages: adopting, establishing and committing. At the outset, not all households were convinced of the benefits of solar power; some even initially turned down the free panels as they were associated with ‘posh’ homeowners not social-housing tenants. However, as solar entitlement increased, prosuming offered an opportunity to decrease household energy costs, although these reductions cannot be assumed. This study offers valuable insights into topical debates, including the role of microgeneration in reducing energy vulnerability.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-022-01169-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natene:v:8:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41560-022-01169-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/nenergy/

DOI: 10.1038/s41560-022-01169-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Energy is currently edited by Fouad Khan

More articles in Nature Energy from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().