The energy transition is an essential shift towards sustainable and renewable sources, mitigating climate change. However, a large bottleneck arises in this transition as the electricity grid struggles to transport all this renewable energy, resulting in grid congestion. Energy hubs (e-hubs) are local collaborations between stakeholders, where energy supply and demand are locally coordinated. This thesis focuses on the development of e-hubs on business parks.
However, the development of e-hubs faces challenges. Many emerging e-hubs are stuck in the initial orientation phase, where groups and collaborations need to be formed, and the possibilities for configurations are explored. There is a low level of organisation on business parks, and a limited support capacity of supporting roles.
Research and design towards e-hubs is complicated due to their socio-technical multi-actor complex systems nature. Existing literature lacks usable and actionable methods and tools to stimulate the orientation phase of e-hubs.
This thesis addresses this gap by adopting a systemic design approach, consisting of two phases. The first phase, ‘Solving the Right Problem’, focuses on systems thinking and ethnography in order to pinpoint the most effective point for intervention. The second phase, ‘Solving the Problem Right’, focuses on design thinking, open and participatory innovation to effectively design interventions to stimulate the orientation phase of e-hub development on business parks in the Netherlands in 2024.
By first investigating the paradigm of e-hubs, their societal context, challenges, gaps in current practices and academic context is explored. Consequently, the system is framed; system boundaries are defined and assumptions are stated. The roles involved in the system are defined and their engagement into the development of e-hubs is analysed. Consequently, a key role is defined.
Next, focus is put on understanding the system, including understanding the thoughts and experiences of the key role, underlying drivers and barriers, and the causal relationships between as well as the rootedness of these drivers and barriers are researched. This leads to the identification of leverage points, places within the system to intervene.
By means of weighing the multiple leverage points based on multiple criteria the key leverage point is defined, representing the Opportunity for intervention within the system. Intervening in this Opportunity will result in cascading effects that will affect the system’s behaviour at large and thus stimulate the orientation phase of e-hub development. The Opportunity is translated into a Design Statement. This marks the end of the first phase of this thesis (‘Solving the Right Problem’), and the beginning of the second phase (‘Solving the Problem Right’).
In order to design an efficient and effective intervention, first the possibility space is explored by learning from success factors in e-hub pilots and Industrial Symbiosis, a system with similar characteristics and a similar scope as to e-hub development. Lessons learned are translated into Design Cues, that are used for participatory innovation by including the key role, stakeholders and experts into the design process.
This results in the design of a new Proposition that will stimulate the orientation phase of e-hub development by focussing on its organisational dimension. The Proposition comprises four interventions in this orientation phase:
Energy Knowledge Hub
Participant Procurement Protocol
Energy Coalition Building Workshops
E-hub Facilitator Forum
Implementing these four interventions will have cascading effects on the stimulation of drivers and mitigation of barriers experienced by the key role, which results in cascading effects within the multi-actor system, which results in cascading effects within the socio-technical system of e-hub development. Therefore, the Proposition will jumpstart systemic change towards the integration of e-hubs in a decentralised energy system.