The Capability Approach as a normative framework for technology assessment Capabilities in assessing digitalization in the energy transformation

Abstract

The digital revolution of the energy system promises a new sustainable energy future, but risks security and privacy. How to balance or at least compare these risks against other values like more sustainabil-ity is far from obvious and poses severe challenges for the orientation knowledge of technology assessment (TA). This paper explores the Capability Approach (CA) as a normative orientation for TA that allows ad-dressing these challenges. We use two scenarios for the current digital-ization in the energy sector as case studies.