From Watermills to Smart Grids - How Digital Technologies and Collaborative Action Enable Decentralized Energy Systems
水車からスマートグリッドへ - デジタル技術と協調行動が分散型エネルギーシステムを可能にする方法 (AI 翻訳)
Klaus Neundlinger
🤖 gxceed AI 要約
日本語
本論文は、再生可能エネルギーへの移行を技術革新だけでなく、地域の実践や制度、集団行動への埋め込みとして捉える社会技術的視点の重要性を論じる。水車の歴史的例と現代のオーストリアのエネルギーコミュニティの事例研究を比較し、デジタル技術が分散型エネルギー生産を促進する一方で、ガバナンスや参加、プラットフォーム基盤による再集中化の課題も提起する。結論として、強靱で持続可能なエネルギー移行には、技術革新と並んで地域の協力と民主的共創の能力強化が不可欠であると主張する。
English
This paper argues that the renewable energy transition must be understood as a socio-technical process, not just a technological challenge. Comparing historical water mills with a contemporary Austrian energy community case study, it shows how digital technologies enable decentralized energy but raise governance and participation issues. It concludes that resilient transitions require strengthening local cooperative capacities alongside technological innovation.
Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.
📝 gxceed 編集解説 — Why this matters
日本のGX文脈において
日本のエネルギー政策では、FIT後のコミュニティエネルギーや分散型システムへの関心が高まっている。本論文の社会技術的視点は、日本における地域主導の再エネ導入やスマートグリッド設計に示唆を与える。
In the global GX context
This paper contributes a socio-technical perspective to global debates on digitalization and decentralization in energy systems. It complements the technology-centric view of smart grids by emphasizing institutional and civic dimensions, relevant for RECs under EU directives and similar initiatives worldwide.
👥 読者別の含意
🔬研究者:Socio-technical transition scholars gain a historical-comparative framework linking past and present decentralized energy systems.
🏢実務担当者:Energy community organizers can learn about the interplay of digital tools, local knowledge, and governance from the Austrian case.
🏛政策担当者:Policymakers should consider that digital platforms may recentralize power; fostering local experimentation and democratic design is crucial.
📄 Abstract（原文）
The transition toward renewable energy is often framed as a technological challenge centred on photovoltaics, digitalization, artificial intelligence, and smart grids. This article argues that such a perspective remains incomplete unless it is complemented by a socio-technical understanding of how technologies become embedded in local practices, institutions, and forms of collective action. Drawing on the historical example of water mills as decentralized energy infrastructures, the article develops a comparative perspective on contemporary renewable energy communities (RECs). Combining insights from the history of technology, socio-technical transition research, and a qualitative case study of a citizen-led Austrian energy community, it examines how decentralized energy systems emerge through the interplay of digital technologies, local knowledge, organizational innovation, and civic engagement. A biographical account of the author's grandfather, who worked in a hydropower-driven mill in the 1930s, illustrates the historical role of mills as regional socio-technical hubs and serves as a point of comparison for present-day energy communities. The analysis shows that digital technologies such as smart meters and data-driven coordination expand opportunities for decentralized energy production but also raise questions of governance, participation, and recentralization through platform-based infrastructures. The article concludes that resilient and sustainable energy transitions depend not only on technological innovation but equally on strengthening local capacities for cooperation, experimentation, and democratic co-design within evolving digital energy ecosystems.
🔗 Provenance — このレコードを発見したソース
- openalex https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21235051first seen 2026-07-29 04:50:54
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