Smart energy technology adoption: Identity has many faces

Smart energy technology adoption: identity has many faces. People increasingly adopt Smart Energy Technologies (SET), including solar panels, and electric vehicles. These are radical innovations that are expected to significantly reduce fossil energy use. Yet, SETs may challenge the stability of current energy grids. To secure the stability of the electricity grid, people need to use these technologies in a way that optimizes demand and supply balancing. We propose that the environmental self-identity will play a central role in this respect: people are more likely to use SET in a sustainable way when they link the adoption of SET to their environmental self-identity. In contrast, we hypothesize that when the adoption of SET results from different motives, such as technological innovativeness, SET are less likely to be used in a sustainable way. We present preliminary results of two studies that show that an identity manipulation of technological innovative identity may result in higher acceptability of future energy scenario’s in which SET play an important role. However, the identity manipulation of environmental self-identity did not affect the acceptability of a range of sustainability energy behaviours. This indicates a possible ceiling effect, as the acceptability ratings were high in both conditions. In addition, these favorable ratings and the enhanced favorable ratings of SET after the technological innovative identity manipulation did not affect the ratings of future energy scenario’s in which behavioral and technological change were combined. Implications for follow-up research will be discussed.