Andrew Darke, one of our active Forest Community Energy members, trialled using the AURORA Energy Tracker app. Here is how he found it:
“I used the web-based version of the app, which as most computer-based dashboard systems is easy to use if you know how. There is lots I don’t understand, including some oddities / anomalies and I would recommend some more guidance on showing people how to do it (like a seminar for example).
Unfortunately, as I wanted to put in data from the start of the year, the process was very long.
I am very interested in carbon footprinting, think about my consumption quite a lot already and installed a ground source heat pump in 2004 and solar panels in 2011. I found it useful to have the visual displays of the comparisons, and I can imagine that it might be genuinely informative and help me to reduce my energy use further if there was more support on offer.
I don’t imagine that the bulk of the population would have the time or interest to use the app, therefore I do think it has only a modest use as a research tool for people who have special interest in these issues. Because of this, I imagine it could not be used to extrapolate figures for the rest of the population as the researchers and indeed any people using the app are likely to be much more conservative users of energy than the public.
And looking to the global situation it is now abundantly clear that none of the main global power brokers, the biggest corporations and the governments both east and west have any genuine interest in cutting emissions on a meaningful timescale.
It is also worth saying that there is no political system, as far as I know, that can take on the existential crisis we face. They are all built for the short term. Hello rampant climate change.
The present damage being caused by 1.4 degrees of warming is of course merely a walk in the park compared to what 2, 2.5 or 3 degrees will be, not forgetting flooding from sea level rise and population movement.
However I am interested in the continuation of the Aurora project of getting community buildings, and indeed any other building, fitted with solar and other renewable kit as long as the financial model keeps control of both production and product and can sell it on at a reduced rate. It seems highly desirable to me to challenge / break central control of almost everything but particularly energy.”
Editorial comment
Great observations, Andrew. More to come to support APP users including personal guidance and advice on how you can save carbon and cash on your energy usage. We also plan more interaction with app users to share lessons learnt. Meanwhile please keep on using the app as we build our knowledge and experience in what is a research project.
The app is now available right across Europe and we intend to encourage app users to interact so they can share experiences as we seek to put in place a European scale citizen science programme on climate change mitigation in 2025. As we develop our ideas we will also explore automated data entry opportunities with energy companies to reduce the burden on app users and improve its value.
You can also have a look at the Citizen Science and Climate Change LinkedIn Group where you can exchange views on using the app.
What you make clear is that citizens are going to have to drive carbon reduction. We can do this if we all work together as a global citizen science community. See the list of AURORA Ambassadors to see how our global coalition of citizen scientists is developing.
