Citizen participation is one of the key components in cultivating a culture that promotes and supports technological, policy, and social innovations. Therefore, it is no surprise that energy citizenship is increasingly drawing scientific attention . However, much of this research remains on the margins of mainstream scientific discussions on the energy transitions, which is mainly preoccupied with technological innovation and sustainable and renewable energy.
We argue that energy transitions can only fully succeed if the role of citizens, in relation to e.g., governing bodies, technology, and other stakeholders, is taken into consideration. Citizens must be accounted for as active participants that can take on the roles of users, consumers, protesters, supporters, and producers, while communicating with, responding to, and interacting with sustainable technology and its developers, fellow citizens, and other stakeholders, and governments (local, national, and international). Given rapid development of new and emerging energy technologies that are intimately intertwined with citizens’ daily lives, the literature of energy transitions must consider citizens as integral parts of an energy community and as the building blocks of energy democracy. Neglecting research on energy citizenship seriously hampers the realisation of resilient energy systems. Furthermore, the ongoing effort within the HIB-cluster in relation to energy transition and energy citizenship should be highly publicized; making our views and efforts visible will help us strengthen ties with researchers, both within and beyond the walls of the UT, and practitioners, both regionally and, hopefully, internationally.
