IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2018 - 71

in my view (continued from p. 76)
generating equipment or selling power
back to the grid. There is power in
numbers, and energy consumers have
much to gain by joining forces. But at
the same time, such a utilitarian view
would be overlooking the idealistic,
progreen and pro-environmental motivations driving at least some energy
cooperatives or, by contrast, the desire to disengage, even become
autarchic from society that may be motivating some others.
Clearly, there are collective action dimensions at work here that
cannot be adequately captured by the
notion of energy consumers alone.
Collective action dynamics can also
influence the relations between local
energy associations on the one hand
and energy providers and municipal
governments on the other. The falling
cost and greater accessibility of renewable energy technologies-solar photovoltaics in particular-has put these
associations into a position where they
can bargain not just over the price of the
energy they consume but also the way
in which this energy is produced. For
example, the inhabitants of a given city,
or even specific city neighborhoods,
may decide to produce some or all of
the energy they need by installing solar
panels on their roofs.
This would obviously affect the way
in which they relate to local energy
providers-they may no longer need
as much gas to heat their homes, for
instance, but they may instead have a
greater need for energy-related services
(e.g., for installing and maintaining solar
photovoltaic panels). What they expect
from local decision makers-council
members, mayors, municipal administrations-may also change, certainly
when it comes to the impact of local energy choices on residents' tax bills, but
possibly also with regard to the climate
friendliness of broader local energy or
transport policies.

Similar issues play out at higher
levels also, regionally or even nationally, up to and including fundamental
decisions on how to confront climate
change and build the low-carbon society of the 21st century. But the main
point is the same: as energy consumers get empowered, they begin to make
choices, some of which
will take them beyond
utilitarian cost-benefit
calculations and turn
them into energy citizens (of course, some
people become active
around energy or climate
issues for nonutilitarian
reasons to begin with).
Does any of this matter for energy
research and innovation? Of course
it does. For example, the drivers and
motivations behind energy-related
choices and behavior, so important for
the success or failure of energy-efficiency measures, have been a central
concern for behavioralists and public
policy specialists for some time. There
is still much we don't know about the
way in which individuals-as well as
households or businesses-make these
choices. Does it matter whether households are headed by women or men? Do
groups-housing co-ops, resident associations, etc.-make different choices
than individuals? Are businesses different from households, and if so, in
what way? How much of these choices
can be attributed to simple cost-benefit
calculations, and how do values, gender or social roles, even the way people
see themselves and would like to be
seen by others, come into the picture?
Does naming and shaming work? How
about nudging?
The interplay between the choices
made by individuals (or households or
businesses) and the institutional and
governance frameworks surrounding
them is an even greater puzzle. In principle, these frameworks should be as
open and transparent as possible to
encourage maximum engagement and

Does any of
this matter for
energy research
and innovation?

january/february 2018

involvement by citizens affected by, for
example, plans for a new wind park or
additional energy transmission lines in
their neighborhoods. In practice, however, citizen involvement is often minimal or token; quite frequently, public
engagement strategies are used to generate "social acceptance" for measures
planned and decided long in advance.
Such strategies can easily backfire, fueling social resistance instead of the
hoped-for acceptance and adding to already widespread distrust in politicians
and the political process.
So much is known, but how do we
make citizen engagement better? What
are the hallmarks of a citizen engagement strategy that "works," allowing
policy measures that are in the public interest to go ahead-having been
properly aired and debated-but taking due account of the interests and

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2018