SolarClub: Supporting Renewable Energy Communities through an Interactive Coordination System

Abstract

Energy communities are a key focus for governments around the world in support of more sustainable energy practices. However, interactive systems for supporting energy communities to coordinate around renewable energy resources are still lacking. We present SolarClub, a demand-shifting visualization system that supported households in coordinating their energy usage by booking energy-hungry activities when solar energy was available. We deployed SolarClub with four groups of neighbors (N=15) for a month. SolarClub successfully enabled neighbors to coordinate, even when some of those participating households were less fiexible. While participants reported that SolarClub did not foster a feeling of community, it helped them empathize with their neighbors. Our findings demonstrate the potential of sensor- and visualization-based technology to help understand the relation between everyday practices and resources consumption, beyond individual eco-feedback. This work thus contributes to the development of a next generation of practices and technologies that support collective action for environmental sustainability.