Exploring the challenges to citizen participation in renewable energy projects

Exploring the challenges to citizen participation in renewable energy projects

van Malssen, Diede (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)

Singh, A. (mentor)
van Eekelen, B.F. (graduation committee)
Poolman, Hans Roeland (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Design for Interaction

LIFE project

2023-02-28

This thesis explores the challenges of citizen participation in renewable energy projects in the context of the LIFE project and neighbourhood Venserpolder. The research is composed of a literature review on participation and an ethnographic study in Venserpolder and in LIFE project between February and July 2022.
The research resulted in the identification of nine main challenges, with several nuanced sub-challenges. These were divided into four challenge spaces describing the context in which these challenges arise. The most important challenge was to “Find the touchpoints between residents’ lives and LIFE project”. Finding those touchpoints will raise appreciation of participation in LIFE project and improve the quality of the participation.
The ethnographic research in the community centres of Venserpolder and one community centre in Holendrecht, provided knowledge about how residents currently participate in their community, which is something LIFE project can learn from.
This knowledge has been transferred to the members of the LIFE project team through a specially designed workshop in which the participants explored the challenges and reflected on how these challenges are relevant to their project. The workshop concluded with clear future steps the project can take. This workshop can be used further to continuously improve awareness around participation challenges in LIFE project, but also in other, similar projects.
It is recommended to explore how residents experience energy in their daily lives and how you can talk about energy, without talking about energy.

Challenges of participation
Energy transition
workshop design
Ethnography
Participation
Social energy transition

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:154ad0a7-762a-4409-b226-0080faeffbaf

52.308000, 4.971500

Student theses

master thesis

© 2023 Diede van Malssen