To climb or not to climb? Investigating energy use behaviour among Solar Home System adopters through energy ladder and social practice lens
To climb or not to climb? Investigating energy use behaviour among Solar Home System adopters through energy ladder and social practice lens
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DOI：
10.1016/j.erss.2018.05.019
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发表时间：
2018-10-01
影响因子：
6.7
通讯作者：
Parikh, Priti
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Bisaga, Iwona;Parikh, Priti
太阳能家庭系统（SHS）和其他离网解决方案在解决没有电网服务或电网服务不可靠的人的能源接入差距方面表现出了希望。随着这一承诺的实现，人们期望提高新联网家庭的社会经济福祉，这些家庭将继续攀登能源阶梯。尽管人们越来越认识到需要超越能源获取的技术经济学，并认识到社会技术系统观点的价值，但离网太阳能解决方案采用者的能源消费和行为的更广泛的社会学研究却很少。本文应用社会实践理论（SPT）和能源和太阳能阶梯框架来分析卢旺达SHS用户的能源消耗和不断变化的社会实践。我们发现，社会实践的动态变化，并依赖于可用的设备，而能源消耗遵循一个复杂的路径，但不随时间或更多的设备以线性方式增加。这些见解对于从事离网电气化的公共和私营机构来说是有用的，为能源和太阳能阶梯概念提供了新的视角，同时也表明了能源获取的社会方面的重要性，即使是在目前SHS提供的相对较低的水平上。
Solar Home Systems (SHSs) and other off-grid solutions have shown promise in addressing the energy access gap for those with no or unreliable grid services. With that promise comes the expectation to boost socio-economic well-being of newly-connected households, who will continue climbing up the energy ladder. Despite the growing appreciation for the need to go beyond the techno-economics of energy access, and the recognition of the value of socio-technical systems perspective, the wider sociology of energy consumption and behaviour among adopters of off-grid solar solutions has been poorly explored. In this paper, we apply the Social Practice Theory (SPT) and the energy and solar energy ladder framework to analyse energy consumption and the changing social practices of SHSs users in Rwanda. We find that social practices change dynamically and depend on available appliances, whereas energy consumption follows a complex path but does not increase in a linear manner with time or more appliances. Insights can prove useful for public and private agencies working on off grid electrification, offering a new perspective on the energy and solar energy ladder concepts while also showing the importance of social aspects of energy access even at relatively low levels of provision currently offered by SHSs.