Place-based societal readiness assessment of key technologies for decarbonisation

This project undertakes a ‘Societal Readiness Assessment’ (SoRA) (Büscher and Cronshaw 2022) of two technologies which are viewed as key for supporting the decarbonisation of domestic energy use: heat pumps (HP) and electric vehicles (EV).  

There are spatial patterns in current energy and transport use, reflecting types of housing, transport provision and socio-economic characteristics. These technologies should be evaluated within different circumstances, considering the practical realities of adoption. 

SoRA provides a framework for involving communities in the evaluation of technologies in terms of how well they contribute to social good, utility and equity. This project undertakes SoRA in collaboration with four different types of communities.  

• The project aims to work with representative groups from across four different communities, using the SoRA framework to evaluate EVs and HPs. 

• Working with the representative groups to identify recommendations for policy makers. 

• To develop a toolkit to support the wider adoption of the SoRA framework

The method takes place across four stages with participants drawn from four case study areas: 

• Stage 1: Interviews with practitioners who are actively involved in supporting householders in adopting Electric Vehicles and Heat Pumps. 
• Stage 2: Interviews with households who have adopted EVs, HPs or both. 
• Stage 3: The analysis of findings and collation of wider information to inform deliberation. 
• Stage 4: Convening of groups drawn from communities across the four case study areas to assess the societal readiness of the technologies.