Browsing by Author "Grönberg, Iiro"

To prevent the ongoing climate change we need to shift our energy use from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The fast evolution of energy technology has opened up the possibility to make small-size renewable energy investments also in private households. Concept of energy citizenship is strongly associated with energy microgeneration. Energy citizenship is a concept, where sustainable energy consumption and increased awareness can combine with decentralized energy systems. Micro-level energy investments can make people more attached to renewable energy both economically and psychologically. Smart-metering helps to keep track of the household's energy production and consumption. Understanding about energy will rise when the contact to energy is habitual. This might have positive sociopsychological effects in people, leading to changes also in patterns of consumption. In the beginning of year 2013 a community energy project started in South Karelia. Altogether 21 households ordered solar photovoltaic panels from Germany. The project was non-commercial and independent. The aim of this study is to find out if the energy investment has launched any changes related to energy citizenship. The study also analyses the community energy project as a process and the actions of a local energy company as part of the project. The national energy policy will also be briefly discussed. The method of this study is a semi-structured interview, which was used to map out the views of project coordinator, energy company and micro producers. The material of twelve interviews is analyzed primarily with qualitative content analysis. The material gives clear signals that solar energy producers have been affected by sparks of energy citizenship. Many of the micro producers are actively monitoring their households' energy production and consumption which has led to upgraded level of knowledge. People are also scheduling some of the energy consumption according to when the solar panels produce energy. The most important result of this study is that investing in energy production can potentially lead to further positive changes in households' energy use. Based on the results of the study, communityled decentralized renewable energy projects can have a positive impact in both climate change and energy attitudes. Making an own investment and building solar panels with one's own hands makes people more attached to energy which is a fertile soil for sprouts of energy citizenship. Solar panels are not the final answer to climate change, but decentralized energy production can be part of the solution – especially because it has effects also on producer-consumers. Dichotomy between centralized and decentralized energy production is useless because both are needed. Instead of helping the progress of certain forms and scales of renewable energy, we could build supportive conditions for renewable energy in general – solar energy included.