Conceptualising energy prosumption : exploring energy production, consumption and microgeneration in Scotland, UK

Ellsworth-Krebs, Katherine and Reid, Louise (2016) Conceptualising energy prosumption : exploring energy production, consumption and microgeneration in Scotland, UK. Environment and Planning A, 48 (10). pp. 1988-2005. ISSN 0308-518X (https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X16649182)

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Abstract

Energy prosumption has become a common phrase as more householders and communities are producing and consuming their own electricity and heat. Prosumption is a combination of two words: production and consumption, and emerged as a concept at a time when consumers were beginning to be more proactive and take over steps traditionally thought of as ‘production’. In many ways, energy prosumption is nothing new (e.g. wood combustion), yet development of our modern energy system has changed the relationships between energy producers and consumers (e.g. smart meters, renewable energy production). Thus, there is a growing body of research interested in the motivation and conditions for the uptake of microgeneration technologies and the implications to energy infrastructures and big energy producers. However, this ‘energy prosumption’ scholarship generally lacks a strong conceptual foundation and misses the opportunity to build on existing prosumption literature and related debates. This paper brings the wealth of literature on prosumption into the energy context and reflects on the insights offered by a prosumption lens. Our study explores a particular manifestation of prosumption – when a household is simultaneously a producer and consumer of their heat and/or electricity via microgeneration – and we present data from semi-structured interviews with 28 households living with microgeneration technologies in Scotland, UK. Thus, we provide a robust framework from which future research on household and community energy prosumption can build.

  • Item type:Article
    ID code:83842
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    1 October 2016
    Published
    28 July 2016
    Published Online
    10 May 2016
    Accepted
    Notes:This work was funded by Economic and Social Research Council (grant number ES/K009516/1), Carnegie Trust (31680) and a PhD studentship at the University of St Andrews. Ellsworth-Krebs, K., & Reid, L. (2016). Conceptualising energy prosumption: Exploring energy production, consumption and microgeneration in Scotland, UK. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 48(10), 1988–2005. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X16649182
    Subjects:Technology > Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering
    Department:Faculty of Engineering > Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:26 Jan 2023 11:03
    Last modified:11 Apr 2024 02:36
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/83842
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