Micro-generation

Abstract

The provision of micro-generation, micro-grids, distributed generation or ‘local energy’ has predominantly been a topic for engineers and technologists rather than social scientists. It has also been the subject of economic and regulatory debate, where opportunities for the trading of micro-generated energy are discussed in similar terms to the ways in which other commodities are traded on stock markets (Ramchurn et al. 2012). The ‘human side’ of these technologies sits outside these issues; it features as either the social acceptance of renewable or small-scale generation technologies (Caird & Roy 2010; Sauter & Watson 2007; Wolsink 2012) or a type of behavioural change resulting from contact with, and awareness of, a localised energy supply system (Keirstead 2007).