International Conference on New Pathways for Community Energy and Storage

Background

Our energy landscape is changing. Local communities are increasingly taking active roles and emerging as new actors in the energy system. For example, some local energy initiatives own solar panels, wind turbines and energy storage system collectively, while others build renewable energy configurations, together with other energy system actors. Community energy and energy storage may enable effective energy system integration and get maximum benefits of local generation. This may lead to more flexible and resilient energy supply systems, and therefore, can play an important role in achieving renewable energy and climate policy objectives.

This international conference is being organized as a part of the Community Responsible Innovation in Sustainable Energy (CO-RISE) project and is funded through the social responsible innovation program of The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO-MVI 2016 [313-99-304]).

Aim of the conference

The aim of this conference is to explore new and innovative socio-technological energy configurations at local and regional level including energy storage.

Bringing together researchers and practitioners

This conference brings together researchers and practitioners interested in the societal dimensions of technology and the technological aspects of social innovation. The focus is specifically on the field of community renewable energy and energy storage.

Key themes

Some key themes will be:

• Socio-technical innovation dynamics in community energy and energy storage
• Co-creation and user-inspired innovation
• Citizens engagement, (self-) governance and local business models
• Comparative institutional analysis: national traditions, cultures, physical constraints, governance and power relations
• New roles and responsibilities of key parties in the transition
• Decentrality, autonomy and resiliency
• Synergies, tensions, dilemmas and challenges at various societal levels
• Variability of technologies and energy configurations
• Responsible innovation in community energy and energy storage
• Scenario’s and scenario analysis
• Value sensitive design and energy technology

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Program (preliminary)

The conference will feature five keynote speeches by leading academics in the field of community energy and energy storage.

Prof. dr. Rolf Künneke, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management (TPM), TUDelft.
Title: Aligning institutions and technology in community energy systems.

Prof. Jens Lowitsch, Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder).
Title: Investing in a Renewable Future – Renewable Energy Communities, Consumer (Co-)Ownership and Energy Sharing in the Clean Energy Package.

Dr. Ankit Kumar, Technology, Innovation and Society, Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.
Title: Developing Country Perspective on Community Energy: Learnings from Indian Smart Grids.

Dr. Mari Martiskainen, Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), Sussex Energy Group, University of Sussex, United Kingdom.
Title: Just Transitions - Can Community Energy Ensure a Better Low-carbon Transition.

Dr. David Parra, Institute for Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland.
Title: Community Energy Storage: Opportunities, Challenges and Perspectives.

In addition:

• Parallel sessions
• Workshops
• Round tables
• Games
• Posters
• Excursions

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Submission of contributions (closed)

If you would like to participate for the conference you are able to submit a topic you would like to present (practitioner) or an abstract of a paper (academic) of max. 300 words. There will also be a poster session, so you can bring a poster of your work. If you would like to do so, please submit an abstract of max. 150 words. We will explore if there is interest to bundle some of the contributions in a special issue of a peer reviewed journal (journal to be determined).

Registration and costs:

Regular conference fee: € 125,- including refreshments, lunches, excursion and the closing dinner during the program (registration deadline May 27). Early bird conference fee of € 100,- for early registration (registration deadline April 7). Please note that all attendees are responsible for both arranging and funding their own travel and lodging.

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Deadlines:

• January 22, 2019 - Early Registration Open
• March 1, 2019 - Topic, Paper, Poster Submission Deadline
• March 8, 2019 - Applicants Informed of Decisions
• April 7, 2019 - Early Registration Closes
• May 27, 2019 - Regular Registration Closes
• June 6 and 7, 2019 - Conference Dates