The “demand side” of the market, actions by citizens as consumers and producers of to low carbon energy now plays an increasing role in the decarbonization of energy and built environment that are the largest carbon polluters in EU. The synergies between energy and digital technologies open new opportunities for novel forms of citizen and community action.
We investigate the new digitally mediated energy communities in Finland:
- Aalto University studies the forms and dynamics of digitally enabled citizen energy communities;
- University of Vaasa focuses on the presently emerging collaborative business ecosystems related to them;
- Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) examines the recent policy reforms and policy coherence related to energy communities as well as the role of public sector.
The consortium also studies the potential of wide digitalized participation arenas for elaborating the future pathways of energy communities. DigiDecarbon is part of a networked competence cluster that is comprised of academic, policy, industry and practitioner actors who focus on the demand side of the energy transition. Consortium is lead by Aalto University, Department of Design, Prof Sampsa Hyysalo.