Domestication pathways of small-scale renewable energy technologies

Abstract

The sociology of consumption uses the domestication framework to examine adaptation processes in which technol-ogy becomes part of everyday life. This study applies the domestication framework to renewable decentralized en-ergy technologies (DET). Drawing on interviews and Internet material from household and summer-cottage inhabit-ants using DETs in Finland, the study sheds light on how renewable energy technologies are adapted in local condi-tions. In such adaptation, multiple domestications are linked and lead to the increasing use of new technologies with-out a stable final point, a process which can be conceptualized as domestication pathways. Modularity, product multi-purposing, and convenient interoperability with other systems are key requirements to enhance the diffusion of re-newable energy technologies.