Enablers: What does it take to evolve from consumer to

The first RQ addresses the energy prosumer enablers: A) How do different enablers contribute to consumers’ evolution into prosumers? B) What is the role of policy as an enabler?

Ensuring that the necessary enablers are in place is the first step toward citizen engagement in the energy system. Based on the initial literature review, the enablers were narrowed down as policy, technology, economic, and individual factors (see e.g., (IEA-RETD 2014; Kotilainen 2019). Some of the enablers are prerequisites to produce, sell, or store energy. In general, many technology enablers are often such prerequisites: for example, solar PV enables energy production and batteries enable storage. Other enablers have a different role. Individual enablers related to motivations, attitudes, skills, and resources influence decision-making and behavior and determine whether the consumer will actually evolve into a prosumer (Masini and Menichetti 2013). Economic enablers increase the perceived benefits of prosumerism and hence support the decision-making. Designing suitable policy mixes in sustainability transitions was identified as one of the research gaps in the

sustainability transition research agenda (Köhler et al. 2019). Policies can accelerate the prosumer base growth or, in some cases, slow it down (Rogge and Reichardt 2016).

The prosumer enablers fall in all levels of the socio-technical MLP (Geels and Schot 2007). Economic enablers concerning the market conditions and price levels are mainly coordinated by the regimes. Novel technologies emerge from the niche to complement, and eventually to replace, the existing systems (Schot et al. 2016).

Policies are landscape and regime tools to induce and steer the change. While the analytical research framework recognizes different types of enablers and they are to an extent discussed in the appended articles, the appended Articles V and VI focus more closely on policy as an enabler.

The significance of policy mixes in sustainability transitions is clear, but the current policy mixes are far from perfect (see e.g., (Kotilainen, Aalto, et al. 2019;

Rogge and Reichardt 2016). As discussed above, policy is a key enabler in removing obstacles from solar PV, EVs, and battery diffusion (IEA 2017; Ossenbrink 2017;

Reddy and Painuly 2004), all of which require a substantial investment in RET.

Examples of the effectiveness of FIT schemes in growing the small-scale solar PV base show how policy influence can be used to drive the adoption of sustainable technologies (Ossenbrink 2017). Concerning the technologies that have a high up-front investment cost, economic incentives are clearly in a key role in the consumer decision-making. However, besides economic incentives, policy influence has other aspects (Kahneman 2003). Article V analyzed the potential influence of economic and non-economic policies on consumer-to-prosumer evolution. The key finding here was that both economic and non-economic policy incentives are important for consumers considering the adoption of RETs. The supportive research stream, citizen survey (N = 1349), also found that the key barriers related to the consumers’

willingness to adopt solar PV were economic but that other factors also influence their decision-making: for example, the availability of turnkey solutions, getting information about electricity consumption, independence from the grid, and reducing emission (Ruostetsaari et al. 2018). The results from Article V confirm the importance of these elements; hence, more holistic policy mixes covering the economic and non-economic aspects of decision-making are called for to accelerate the adoption of RETs (see also (Rogge and Reichardt 2016). RET adoption, for example, in Finland is slow compared to some other markets owing to the lack of targets and policy support for solar energy diffusion (Haukkala 2019; Ruostetsaari et al. 2018). Furthermore, strong EV incentives in Norway have enabled fast electrification of transport, whereas in Finland, where the incentives are modest, the

EV base growth is slower, with focus on PHEVs rather than BEVs (IEA 2018;

Kester et al. 2018; Kotilainen et al. 2018).

Active prosumers, that Schot et al. (2016) call user-citizens, have found their place in influencing policy agendas both at the EU level and in many of its member states (European Commission 2009, 2017). Article VI observes how policies are currently applied to different prosumer activities, specifically microgeneration, DR (and storage), and energy sales. The article proposes that these should be treated as integrated rather than separate activities to obtain the maximum effects of small-scale prosumers’ activities on sustainability. For example, if both solar PV and EVs are incentivized, the residential house-holds are able to produce clean energy to charge their EVs, rather than rely on the national energy mix, where fossil fuels are still likely to be used. Hence, the policy mixes should also be more holistic and encourage prosumers to engage in multiple activities rather than just one. For example, prosumers that produce energy could also use it to charge their EVs and participate in DR plans. Soft instruments such as information campaigns could be effective to partially achieve this; however, economic incentives to accelerate EV and battery diffusion are also required. To create such holistic policy mixes that support different actors, better coordination of policies between different policy streams in the policy goal setting, design, and instrument planning is needed, as suggested by Rogge and Reichardt (2016) in their framework for policy mixes for sustainability transitions.

Policy mixes also vary greatly even within the EU. The five-consumer survey (N=197) countries have both similarities and differences in their approaches e.g. to emission reduction and the policy mixes to support micro-generation, EVs, storage and other prosumer enablers vary by country. Germany supports solar micro-generation, storage and EVs but is behind in rolling out smart metering and advanced DR regulation. France is leading in EV support, DR and solar production but has does not have full-scale smart meter rollout nor strong battery incentives.

Italy has traditionally supported energy efficiency, smart metering and solar PV production but has been slower in opening DR markets. Finland has open electricity market with smart metering infrastructure in place but is not particularly incentivizing micro-generation or residential battery storages. Switzerland is one of the front-runners in micro-generation and DR, but smart meter rollout is not completed and the market liberalization is also still under implementation.

(European Commission 2017; IEA 2017; Valta 2017; B. Zhou et al. 2016). Further studies mapping the local policy frameworks and prosumption could be very useful

in increasing the understanding of policy influence on consumer and prosumer decision-making.