Future energy services: empowering local communities and citizens

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the future prospects of innovative services linked to sustainable energy systems. Design/methodology/approach – Service perspective is examined in the context of socio-technical transition and linked to the bottom-up and top-down social processes that foster sustainability. The foresight method applied is trend analysis. Findings – Two groups of trends were identified: the trends driven by technological development and the trends focussing on societal, managerial and consumer issues. The former consists of renewable energy sources, hybrid solutions, smart grids and smart energy markets. The latter involves distributed energy production, demand response, optimisation of sustainability and the role of energy as an opportunity and as service. The study reveals that energy is increasingly understood as a comprehensive and tailor-made service solution for communities and individual households. Consumers will enter the energy market as active participants; it raises the need for many types of services. Research limitations/implications – Deepening of understanding is required in several topics of this study, and more formal methods of foresight are needed to test the generalisability of its qualitative results. Practical implications – More effective policy measures are needed for fostering new services and social and system innovations in the area of sustainable energy. Innovation management practices should be developed in these areas. Originality/value – The paper aims to narrow the research gap linked to foresight in services by examining services in the area of sustainable energy systems – one of the “grand challenges” today.

Impactful engineering education through sustainable energy collaborations with public and private entities

“…In the present case study, the contact with public and private local institutions allows outcomes through applications which are strongly related to social needs. Within this context, "energy is increasingly understood as a comprehensive and tailor-made service solution for communities and individual households" and "the aim to narrow the research gap linked to foresight in services, by examining services in the area of sustainable energy systems, is one of the main challenges of today" (Hyytinen and Toivonen, 2015).…”

Использование Методов Управления Энергосбережением И Повышением Энергоэффективности В Условиях Инновационного Развития Экономики

“…В зарубежных публикациях эти же вопросы рассматриваются более детально, причем с двух различных точек зрения. Первая свя-зана с обеспечением устойчивости региональной энергетической системы под вли-янием различных факторов инновационного характера, например, увеличение доли возобновляемых источников энергии в энергетической инфраструктуре региона [10] ( Viholainen et al, 2016), создание интеллектуальных сетей и энергетических рын-ков [11] (Hyytinen, Toivonen, 2015) и т.д. Вторая точка зрения сориентирована на раз-работку оптимальных стратегий повышения энергоэффективности в регионах страны, в том числе с использованием инновационных решений [12,13] (Ruiz-Fuensanta, 2016).…”

Service Innovation for Sustainability: Paths for Greening Through Service Innovation

“…In the most common case -the hybridization of material and informational innovation trajectories -the question arises as to whether hybridization helps reduce the level of materiality of the new hybrid technical systems formed (to which the answer is probably yes, assuming that the software dimension overrides the hardware dimension). However, beyond this hypothetical dematerialization, there is no doubt that some hybridization strategies, all other things being equal, do have a greening effect: this is the case where the introduction of ICTshelpsstreamline use of a technical system with a view to sustainabilityand in particular to energy-saving (smart grid solutions) (Hyytinen and Toivonen, 2015). This is also the case where ICTs are used to carry out service transactionwithout travel (e.g.…”

“…It also raises appropriation issues, given the multiplicity of stakeholders (and in particular the role of the user). It requires innovations in our innovation and performance measurement apparatus, in order to reflect -beyond industrial and technical performance -environmental and social performance (Hyytinen et al, 2015).…”