In June 2020, the IFZO energy cluster organised a workshop for its underway book project. Due to the pandemic situation, the workshop was held online. The workshop started with the opening speech of Prof Michael Rodi, the speaker of the cluster of energy, giving an overview of IFZO research activities and vision. After that, Dr Farid Karimi presented the schedule of the day and provided practical information regarding the workshop and the book project. The workshop had five sessions running in two parts—one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Over 18 researchers from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Germany, the UK, Austria and the Netherlands participated in this workshop and presented the initial drafts of their book chapters. The book chapters were selected through an open call for submitting abstracts.

“Activating People for Energy Transition in the Baltic Sea Region: Flexibility options for demand-side, social acceptance and community engagement” is the title of the underway book edited by Michael Rodi and Farid Karimi of the IFZO energy cluster. Public acceptance and bottom-up grassroots movements play an essential role in the energy transition. As a result, it is vital to understand how to unlock the potential for public, community, and prosumer participation in renewable energy deployment and a clean energy transition; consequently, how social acceptability emerges. The existing body of literature on these topics may be extensive, but it often provides little guidance to policymakers and other actors on how to proceed with their work given the complex nature of social acceptance and acceptability.

The book examines practical implications of policy measures and provides recommendations on these topics with social sciences, law, humanities and economics approaches. The full manuscript of the book will be submitted in early 2021 to a publisher. Currently, the book proposal is under review for Routledge publishing house as part of the series Routledge Studies in Energy Transitions.

For further information about the title of each presentation and participants in the workshop, please see the following document: Workshop Schedule

- Dr. Farid Karimi