The depletion of fossil fuel sources for our energy system and the influence on overall CO2 emissions drive the need to more sustainable energy systems. The transition towards a renewable energy system cannot be seen as a purely technical issue; it is strongly embedded within society. In this study, we analyze the stakeholder complexities of the transition in urban districts and research the use of a simulation game to increase the understanding of the complexity of the transition. Surveys and observations were used to collect data about the learning experiences of playing the game GO2Zero. The results show that participants liked to play the game and they considered the game a valid representation of the system. Further, the participants agree that they obtained a better understanding of the complexity of the residential energy system and experienced a variety of challenges in the transition. Simulation games, like GO2Zero, could become valuable instruments in local energy transition processes as they offer a safe environment for novices and experts to jointly experiment with the challenges in this process. These experiences could support the design of the transition process by helping actors to formulate goals and collaborative strategies for achieving those goals. Future research will focus on the use of this game for experimenting with different strategies and instruments and to analyze their effects

Cities face a challenging task in reducing CO2 emissions. Multiple technical solutions on district level as well as household level are available; multiple stakeholders with different values and possibilities to intervene are involved; and their actions highly influence the performance. To get a better understanding of these complexities and to contribute to a community-based transition process towards a CO2 city, a simulation game was developed. This game, GO2Zero, represents an abstract district that is challenged to reduce the CO2 emission to zero. Multiple stakeholders take actions, observe the challenges, and deal with these challenges with the final objective a sustainable district. This paper illustrates the first sessions with this game and show that different strategies of stakeholders lead to different challenges, ways to solve these, and a variety of outcomes.

This paper presents the serious multi-player tabletop game GO2Zero and explores how such games may contribute to overcoming barriers to local energy retrofitting. The game lets actors involved in local energy retrofitting, experience the multi-actor decision-making context. In half a day, about twenty participants play a role. Roles defined are: local authority, housing corporation, tenant, homeowner, local sustainable energy supplier, grid operator, local renewable energy supplier, or a contractor offering retrofitting measures and technologies. Within the game, participants are requested to determine their energy goals, and the strategies to be used to achieve them. In four consecutive rounds, each representing several years, participants have to decide which retrofitting investments they will make, if any. They can choose from a number of retrofitting measures, and have to get an understanding of the pros and cons of each. They are confronted with the consequences of their decisions over the years, in terms of individual and collective goal achievement, carbon reduction, security of supply (network instability), land use, and affordability. After playing the game, the participants have more insight in the different opportunities for retrofitting, the effect of different retrofitting strategies, and the dynamics of the institutionally fragmented decision-making context. The paper will report on the experiences of sessions played with local stakeholders involved in energy retrofitting in the cities of Dubrovnik, Amsterdam and Delft. The game development and sessions played have been part of the EU FP7 supported project ‘City-zen, new urban energy’. The game has been developed in collaboration with DNVGL.