🔍 Citizens as Co-Innovators: From PV Technology to Energy Communities

Using Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation as a framework, the presentation will examine how citizen engagement has shaped:

• Technological innovations: including solar home systems, off-grid PV water pumps, PV irrigation, and citizen science initiatives such as Counting the Sun, OpenPV, and Generation Solar.
• Social innovations: with a detailed analysis of 34 Energy Communities (ECs) across Europe, assessing levels of citizen participation and types of community structures.

Although citizen involvement is central to ECs in theory, the findings reveal that only 32% demonstrate active citizen engagement. Higher participation levels tend to occur in smaller-scale initiatives, such as neighborhood associations and island-based communities under 500 kW.

📊 Key Insights

• Historical and international PV projects demonstrate the value of citizen-researcher collaboration.
• Participatory design improves both technological success and community acceptance.
• Many so-called social innovations lack meaningful citizen participation, revealing a need to reframe community involvement beyond token consultation.

📘 Aiming for Citizen-Centered Energy Systems

This plenary will present practical strategies and inspirational examples to help researchers, policymakers, and innovators deepen citizen involvement in the energy transition, highlighting citizens as indispensable actors—not just beneficiaries—of sustainable energy systems.