Andrea Kollmann

We study the causal effect of digital information provision on household electricityconsumption using a randomized field experiment with a staggered rollout.Households were randomly assigned to an information condition (N = 449), receivingaccess to a smartphone application with feedback on electricity use, costs,emissions, social comparisons, and gamified learning features, or to a controlcondition (N = 443) without app access. We measure electricity consumption usinghigh-frequency smart-meter data for up to 70 weeks after treatment. App accessreduces daily electricity consumption by approximately 4.5–4.7%, with reductionsconcentrated in daytime hours (07:00–22:00), when households have greater scopeto adjust consumption. Point estimates remain negative throughout the observationperiod, but statistical significance is concentrated in the first six months afterrollout. App engagement declines sharply after rollout, and higher engagementis associated with larger and more persistent reductions in consumption. Thefindings suggest that digital feedback can reduce residential electricity demand,but that persistence depends on sustained user attention

How to engage diverse groups of people in the energy transition in Europe is a pressing issue, one that requires grappling with the role of collectivities and social change dynamics. Based on the results of multi-form Citizen Action Labs (CAL) in four European cities, this article details the different ways in which energy citizenship was practised, drawing from an analysis of survey and workshop data, national reports, and exchanges between research team members. From tiny houses in Overhalla, renewable energy production in Berlin and citizen-led action plans for the climate in both Città di Castello and Geneva, the CALs had different objectives, but all revealed how citizens, research teams and local partners engage with technical solutions, as an established socio-technical imaginary, as well as sufficiency measures and collective political action, as emerging and more radical socio-technical imaginaries. We introduce ‘dispersed’ practices, such as planning and imagining, as central to collective forms of action, and differentiate individual action from collective action in relation to complexity, defined as increased coordination. We demonstrate how citizen collectives are limited by more complex dynamics, such as existing infrastructures or regulations. In the conclusion, we highlight what measures could be taken to further support collective energy citizenship in the future.

This symposium brings together social science energy researchers working on gaining an understanding of the various social, economic and political dimensions of energy citizenship and how energy citizenship affects the clean-energy transition process across Europe. Representing six different countries (Austria, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Norway and Turkey) the contributors each present cutting-edge scientific research activities that exemplify developments toward achieving energy citizenship and reflect on the overlaps and synergies with environmental citizenship.

This study provides the first analysis of geospatial factors on the seasonal decision to commute by bike or use a bike for errands across 31 European countries. The sample was drawn from a survey of 14,845 respondents and combined with geospatial variables that describe the respondents’ local areas. Controlling for well-known demographic and subjective socio-cultural variables, statistical relationships from the less explored objective geospatial variables on the seasonal biking decisions were estimated using a bivariate probit model. We find that the large differences observed between the biking levels in European countries can not be explained by differences in structural characteristics alone. In line with literature our interpretation of this gap points towards biking as a social innovation, partly driven by cultural and societal levers. The cross-country comparison presented in this study improves our understanding of the dynamic social innovation process that encapsulates mobility choice and cycling adoption, and highlights the levers that policymakers and urban planners have to influence this process.

Despite large amounts of available roof space, long pay-back periods for investments in photovoltaic (PV) power plants often hinder PV installations in industrial parks. Photovoltaic citizen participation initiatives (PV-CPI) are an alternative way of financing PV power plants that add non-financial benefits to these investments. This paper analyzed the feasibility of the installation of PV power plants focused on high rates of self-consumption financed by citizen participation initiatives on the roofs of five companies located in the Austrian Ennshafen industrial business park based on the net present value and the discounted pay-back period and compared it to a standard financing scheme, assuming a predetermined interest rate for participants as well as economies of scale with respect to the specific installation costs due to a joint purchase of the PV power plants. To calculate the feasibility, site-specific data and literature input have been used. The results show that despite an interest rate above the current interest rates of conservative forms of investments provided to (small-scale) investors, a payback-period of 17–23 years can be reached while the joint purchase can lead to a competitive feasibility of the PV-CPI compared to an individual purchase of PV power plants.