International Conference on New Pathways for Community Energy and Storage 1

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
Program
The conference will feature four keynote speeches by leading academics in the field of community energy and energy storage.
Dr. Michael Ornetzeder, Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA) of Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria.
Title: Energy storage and Other Flexibility Options: Towards a Comparison of Alternative Socio-technical Configurations
Dr. David Parra, Institute for Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Title: Community Energy Storage: Opportunities, Challenges and Perspectives
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. 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
In addition:
Parallel sessions
Round table
Plenaries: debate
Presentations of new configurations and storage technologies
Posters
Book exhibition
Excursion
Submission of contributions
In the conference website, you can now submit the 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).
For more information, please contact h.j.van.der.windt@rug.nl or e.c.j.vanoost@utwente.nl.
Venue
The two-day conference takes place at the Energy Academy Europe at the Zernike campus of the University of Groningen. This is an inspiring location for our event as it is the most sustainable education building of the Netherlands. The building is a place where societal partners, education and academia join forces to work on research and innovation in the field of energy. As the building meets the highest sustainable energy standards, it received the BREEAM-rating ‘Outstanding’.
Organising team
Dr Henny van der Windt
Dr Ellen van Oost
Dr Binod Koirala
Esther van der Waal MSc.