Good engagement in the energy transition?

Energy systems are now changing towards being more distributed and decentralized which opens space for the participation of new actors and actor constellations. Producers, distributers, users and technologies are being coupled in novel ways which are creating shifts in established power balances and reorient traditional interests and logics. 

In this workshop we want to engage you in a discussion on what this development means for how we approach the question of engagement in energy transitions. What types of engagement will the energy system need and from whom? Do we need to make distinctions between what is “good” and what is “bad” engagement? And lastly, what role will activism and disruption play?

Program 

09:00 – Registration

09:30 – Welcome and setting the scene by Marianne Ryghaug and Gisle Solbu (NTNU)

09:45 – Session 1: Energy communities and the “good” citizen?

• Keynote: ‘Citizen engagement in energy transition. Insights from a gas country’, Anna Wieczorek (Eindhoven University of Technology)
• Presentation: ‘Distributed energy roll-out’, Michael Niederkofler (Energie Kompass GmbH)
• Interventions 
• Q&A and moderated dialogue

11:00 – Lunch

11:45 – Session 2: Energy transitions for whom? Justice and equity in participation

• Presentation: ‘title to come’, Guiseppe P. Masini (NTNU)
• Presentation: ‘Energy transition and low-income groups in Norway’, Sarah Heidenreich (NTNU)
• Interventions 
• Q&A and moderated dialogue

13:00 – Coffee break

13:30 – Session 3: Energizing the energy transition? Disruption and activism as constructive means of change

• Presentation: ‘title to come’, Ragnhild Freng Dale (Vestlandsforskning)
• Presentation: ‘Disruptive environmental communication’, Christian Klöckner (NTNU)
• Interventions 
• Q&A and moderated dialogue

14:45 – Workshop summary, Gisle Solbu (NTNU)

15:00 – End of workshop

Confirmed speakers and interveners:

Anna Wieczorek, Associate professor @Eindhoven University of Technology

Michael Niederkofler, Head of Innovation Laboratory @Energie Kompass GmbH

Sara Heidenreich, Researcher @NTNU Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture

Guiseppe Pellegrini Masini, Associate professor @NTNU Department of Teacher Education

Ragnhild Freng Dale, Senior Researcher @Vestlandsforskning

Christian Klöckner, Professor @NTNU Department of Psychology

Julius Wesche, Researcher @NTNU Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture

Marianne Ryghaug, Professor @NTNU Department of Interdisciplinary Studies and Culture

Gisle Solbu, Senior research fellow @NTNU Department of Interdisciplinary Studies and Culture