Aarhus University Seal

Empowering active citizenship by virtual reality (VR) experiences: New opportunities to address social acceptance issues of innovative renewable energy systems

The climate and recent energy crisis are hoped to accelerate renewable energy sources in Europe. Even though citizens often support means to reach the green transition on a general level, when it comes to “their own backyard,” their tolerance or approval is not automatically given (Wolsink, 2007). On the one side, there is a failure to integrate citizens into development and planning processes early and adequately. On the other side, researchers and project developers often fear that co-creation processes, where citizens actively participate from the beginning to the end, are beyond their expertise and time. We propose an interdisciplinary approach, where social sciences bridge this gap between technical sciences and the public by providing virtual reality (VR) experiences of socially needed system disruptive innovations. This allows citizens to experience and interact with 360-degree visualization of innovations under development (Cranmer et al., 2020).

Jessica Aschemann-Witzel

Professor Department of Management

Anne Odile Peschel

Associate Professor Department of Management

Gabriele Torma

Postdoc Department of Management

Marta Victoria

Associate Professor Department of Mechanical and Production Engineering - Fluids and Energy