Browsing by Author "Juntunen, Jouni K."
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- Accelerating transition toward district heating-system decarbonization by policy co-design with key investors : opportunities and challenges
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2023-10-04) Auvinen, Karoliina; Meriläinen, Teemu; Saikku, Laura; Hyysalo, Sampsa; Juntunen, Jouni K.District heating in European, Chinese, and Russian cities is still mainly produced with fossil fuels. Energy-system reconfiguration is essential to achieve full decarbonization, which calls for a greater understanding of how to engage key investors in market transformation and how to formulate effective policy mixes. This article reports on how decarbonization could be accelerated in district-heating systems in Finland with stakeholder orientation especially on key investors consisting of companies focused on district-heating, data-center management, real estate development, and sewage operations. The technological attention is on the excess and ambient heat systems. Drawing from surveys, interviews, and workshops we identified investment barriers and collected policy and strategy proposals to overcome them. The results demonstrate that diversifying and strengthening the policy and strategy mix is needed to overcome barriers related to profitability, political uncertainties, and underdeveloped cooperation and profit-sharing models. Policy co-design with key investors holds potential to improve the effectiveness and acceptability of policies, but with certain limitations as regime actors tend to oppose the types of destabilization needed to achieve full decarbonization of energy systems. Thus, effective policy co-design processes need further development as collaboration is a success factor to achieve climate change-mitigation targets, but simultaneously tensions and conflicts cannot be avoided when accelerating energy-system transformation. - Capturing the micro-level of intermediation in transitions: Comparing ethnographic and interview methods
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2020-09) Murto, Pekka; Hyysalo, Sampsa; Juntunen, Jouni K.; Jalas, MikkoTo date, a major portion of sustainability transition research has relied on retrospective methods to generate encompassing macro-level views of transitions. However, such methods may have considerable impacts on the insights generated in the study of intermediation, action and agency by actors on the micro-level of transitions. In this article, we compare retrospective interviews and real-time ethnography to understand how they portray micro-level transition processes and intermediation. The empirical context of our study is energy retrofitting, which we use to illustrate three structural and three process aspects that distinguish the findings from retrospective interviewing and real-time ethnography. Ethnographic methods can provide significant new detail on the uncertainty and complexity of micro-level transition processes while interviews facilitate cross-case comparison and understanding of commonalities in micro-level transition intermediation processes better. - Energy Internet forums as acceleration phase transition intermediaries
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2018-06) Hyysalo, Sampsa; Juntunen, Jouni K.; Martiskainen, MariCitizen users play important roles in the acceleration phase of energy transitions, during which small-scale renewable energy technologies (S-RET) become taken up more widely. From users’ perspective, turning the early, and typically slow, proliferation into a more rapid and widespread diffusion requires not only the adoption of S-RET but also the adaptation, adjustment, intermediation and advocacy of S-RETs. These activities become necessary because S-RET face a variety of market, institutional, cultural and environmental conditions in different countries. New Internet-based energy communities have emerged and acted as key user-side transition intermediaries that catalyse these activities by qualifying market information, articulating demand and helping citizen users to reconfigure the standard technology to meet the specificities of different local contexts. In doing so, Internet communities foster an appreciatively critical discourse on technology. Such user intermediation is important in expanding the markets for S-RET beyond that of enthusiasts, environmentalists and other early adopters, to the early majority of adopters who demand more exposure, clearer information and less uncertainty about new technology options. - Improving understanding of energy autonomy: A systematic review
A2 Katsausartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2021-05) Juntunen, Jouni K.; Martiskainen, MariAutonomy is often cited as a key aspect of energy systems. Previous academic literature on energy autonomy has predominantly approached it from a technological perspective, and conceptualized it as self-sufficiency of energy production. In addition to self-sufficiency, autonomous energy users and communities often aim to create energy systems that treat different stakeholders as equals, with a balanced distribution of costs and benefits. This paper has two aims. First, it aims to clarify the concept of ‘energy autonomy’. Second, it aims to provide an overview of existing literature addressing energy autonomy, identifying relevant publications and publication outlets, as well as main research themes and activities. The results, based on a systematic review of 71 peer-reviewed academic articles, show that energy autonomy research has increased in the last twenty years. The results also show how existing literature has understood, and used, the concept of energy autonomy in varying ways. Furthermore, the paper reveals how motivations, technologies, and scales differ in energy autonomy projects. While the aim of reaching energy autonomy is often motivated by economic and/or social reasons, these aspects are nevertheless rarely discussed in academic literature as the predominant focus tends to be on technological issues and self-sufficiency. The paper concludes with energy policy implications and avenues for future research. - Market intermediation and its embeddeness – Lessons from the Finnish energy transition
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2022-03) Hyysalo, Sampsa; Heiskanen, Eva; Lukkarinen, Jani; Matschoss, Kaisa; Jalas, Mikko; Kivimaa, Paula; Juntunen, Jouni K.; Moilanen, Fanni; Murto, Pekka; Primmer, EevaEnergy transitions are in many respects past the early exploration stages and moving towards the urgently needed mass market take-up. We examine the Finnish energy transition regarding how solutions – heat-pumps, deep retrofits and new district-wide solutions – that have demonstrated economic benefits and reasonable payback times have faced slow uptake and slow market development. We focus on the difficulties that suppliers and adopters face in establishing the value and singularization of goods when adopters need to act as calculative agents in the market. When the intermediation processes needed for market development do not cover the all the needed aspects, these market difficulties can persist until late in the transition process. We further elaborate how the intermediation takes place in ecologies of actors that become complex once the complexity of goods grows and the intermediation becomes tied to formalized arenas such as those found in urban development. Periodic assessment of the effectiveness of markets and ecologies of intermediation can inform policy interventions on market development. - Materiality in community energy innovation : A systematic literature review of hands-on material engagement in energy transition
A2 Katsausartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2024-08) Kuu-Park, Goeun; Kohtala, Cindy; Juntunen, Jouni K.; Hyysalo, SampsaCollective and citizen-driven activities for energy transition have been thriving globally in recent decades. Community energy innovation (CEI) developed through hands-on engagement with materials has garnered increasing attention from the interdisciplinary energy research community. The recent scholarly discussion has highlighted the role of materiality and its relation to collective agency, inclusion, and approaches to participation. Accordingly, paying attention to materiality in CEI can clarify sociotechnical aspects of energy innovation which have been commonly understood through either solely a social or technical view. Furthermore, fostering citizens' take-up of renewable energy in more democratic ways is a prerequisite for accelerating the energy transition and is arguably best done via material, hands-on engagement. However, the focus on materiality, particularly hands-on material engagement, in research on community energy appears to be fragmented. Therefore, we conducted a systematic literature review to better understand how researchers understand and approach materiality and material engagement in CEI. The results of analyzing 36 papers highlight that materiality in CEI has been studied in interdisciplinary fields through diverse methods, and we identify four types of networks in which such innovation emerges. We also identify geographically dispersed and Do-It-Yourself enthusiast-led energy innovations which go beyond the existing understanding of CEI. More importantly, a network may change over time and place because of the configurational material nature of decentralized small-scale renewable energy technologies. However, studying materially-engaged CEI needs further efforts to integrate empirical data more centrally with the existing knowledge base and concretely define how materiality plays out in collective energy innovation. - Mountaineering – A Combinatory Approach for Identifying Lead Users and Other Rare Research Subjects
School of Science | D4 Julkaistu kehittämis- tai tutkimusraportti tai -selvitys(2013) Mäkinen, Samuli; Helminen, Pia; Johnson, Mikael; Hyysalo, Sampsa; Juntunen, Jouni K.; Freeman, StephanieUser innovation is common in many domains, and has been found concentrated in few individuals, lead users. Particularly with regard to a given product or service development project, such rare research subjects can be difficult and resource intensive to identify. Several alternative methods are common in the lead-user identification process, but according to dominant practitioner experience, the searches tend not to follow just one of them, but rather are inclined to involve the integration of several methods. This integration of alternative search methods has not, however, been discussed properly to date. The present state of affairs can make the lead-user identification process appear either as simple recipe following or as a mysterious process. We argue for a realistic middle ground between these extreme depictions, and propose an integrative search strategy labeled “mountaineering” towards users with the sought-after characteristics, lead userness in case of lead users. Through four principal and two supportive cases of mountaineering search, we elaborate some of the alternatives and choices in moving from one search method to another as responses to contingencies in particular searches. This elaboration of actual search experiences complements established depictions of ideal search processes and analytical comparisons between particular search methods. - Prosuming Energy - User Innovation and New Energy Communities in Renewable Micro-Generation
School of Business | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)(2014) Juntunen, Jouni K.In the energy sector, the end-user role is changing from passive consumer to active co-provider with decentralized technologies. This enables new forms of collaboration and active engagement with technology. This thesis examines energy prosumers' active engagement with renewable micro-generation technologies and draws from and contributes primarily to research on energy consumption, social shaping of technology, and user innovation research. Based on 52 interviews and ethnography on large Finnish online forums conducted during years 2011-2012, this study addresses the following question: What kind of forms of active energy usership emerge with renewable micro-generation? The key findings demonstrate how homeowners have an evolutionary approach in building and configuring residential energy systems. The trust in new small-scale renewable energy technologies is built gradually and capacity is scaled up along with accumulating trust. New micro-generation technologies tend to become supporting sources besides existing technology and the use of one renewable technology easily leads to the use of other renewable sources later on. The concept of 'domestication pathways' describes this phenomenon. Furthermore, the findings reveal the emergence of new types of energy communities. Traditionally, community energy has been seen as local activity. However, user-run online forums play key role by providing advanced peer support and demonstrate how community energy can take highly dispersed structure and virtual form. These Internet communities support both domestication of micro-generation technology and creative user projects, which range from do-it-yourself copy systems to new inventions spreading out in various ways. The study charted user inventions in heat pump and wood pellet burning systems and found 192 inventions or modifications that improved either efficiency, suitability, usability, maintenance, or price of the micro-generation systems. The gradual development of domestic energy systems should be recognized in energy policy. Flexibility to adapt to changes is an important factor and it fosters sustainable development pathways for housing energy systems and proliferation of renewable energy generation in households. Regulatory actions can open the existing lock-ins and support hybridization of the systems and the use of various renewable energy sources. Consequently, for the manufacturers hybridization points towards increased importance of modularity and multi-purposing of micro-generation products. - Series of configurational movements : User activities in technology generalization
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2024-03) Hyysalo, Sampsa; Juntunen, Jouni K.The detailed studies of adoption and user activities indicate that continuous alterations accompany the proliferation of new technology, yet diffusion theory and system change-oriented frameworks portray the spread of technologies across a social or sociotechnical system with relatively few changes. To better reconcile the two orientations, we introduce a series of configurational movements (SCM) as a conceptual register for the generalization of new technology in society. We elaborate on the SCM with an over-a-decade-long investigation into heat pumps in Finland, one of the globally furthest progressed energy transitions. The process has thus far involved nine configurational movements, each featuring a change in the character of the technology, the ecology of actors relevant to it, and the contexts in which the technology spreads. SCM analysis further surfaces eight user activity types that have shaped how the technology, its deployment, and its markets have evolved: Adoption and routine use, adaption and adjustment, championing, user innovation, community building, peer intermediation, market creation and production of legitimating discourse on heat pumps. In all, the generalization features significant shifts in user practices, the technology, and societal impact throughout the process, not only during its early phases, instilling energy system wide change. - Situated lifestyles: I. How lifestyles change along with the level of urbanization and what the greenhouse gas implications are - a study of Finland
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2013) Heinonen, Jukka; Jalas, Mikko; Juntunen, Jouni K.; Ala-Mantila, Sanna; Junnila, SeppoAn extensive body of literature demonstrates how higher density leads to more efficient energy use and lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transport and housing. However, our current understanding seems to be limited on the relationships between the urban form and the GHG emissions, namely how the urban form affects the lifestyles and thus the GHGs on a much wider scale than traditionally assumed. The urban form affects housing types, commuting distances, availability of different goods and services, social contacts and emulation, and the alternatives for pastimes, meaning that lifestyles are actually situated instead of personal projects. As almost all consumption, be it services or products, involves GHG emissions, looking at the emissions from transport and housing may not be sufficient to define whether one form would be more desirable than another. In the paper we analyze the urban form–lifestyle relationships in Finland together with the resulting GHG implications, employing both monetary expenditure and time use data to portray lifestyles in different basic urban forms: metropolitan, urban, semi-urban and rural. The GHG implications are assessed with a life cycle assessment (LCA) method that takes into account the GHG emissions embedded in different goods and services. The paper depicts that, while the direct emissions from transportation and housing energy slightly decrease with higher density, the reductions can be easily overridden by sources of indirect emissions. We also highlight that the indirect emissions actually seem to have strong structural determinants, often undermined in studies concerning sustainable urban forms. Further, we introduce a concept of 'parallel consumption' to explain how the lifestyles especially in more urbanized areas lead to multiplication of consumption outside of the limits of time budget and the living environment. This is also part I of a two-stage study. In part II we will depict how various other contextual and socioeconomic variables are actually also very important to take into account, and how diverse GHG mitigation strategies would be needed for different types of area in different locations towards a low-carbon future. - Situated lifestyles: II. The impacts of urban density, housing type and motorization on the greenhouse gas emissions of the middle-income consumers in Finland
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2013) Heinonen, Jukka; Jalas, Mikko; Juntunen, Jouni K.; Ala-Mantila, Sanna; Junnila, SeppoThe relationship between urban form and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has been studied extensively during the last two decades. The prevailing paradigm arising from these studies is that a dense or compact urban form would best enable low-carbon living. However, the vast majority of these studies have actually concentrated on transportation and/or housing energy, whereas a growing number of studies argue that the GHG implications of other consumption should be taken into account and the relationships evaluated. With this two-part study of four different area types in Finland we illustrate the importance of including all the consumption activities into the GHG assessment. Furthermore, we add to the discussion the idea that consumption choices, or lifestyles, and the resulting GHGs are not just a product of the values of individuals but actually tied to the form of the surrounding urbanization: that is, lifestyles are situated. In part I (Heinonen et al 2013 Environ. Res. Lett. 8 025003) we looked into this situation in Finland, showing how the residents of the most urbanized areas bring about the highest GHG emissions due to their higher consumption volumes and the economies-of-scale advantages in the less urbanized areas. In part II here, we concentrate only on the middle-income segment and look for differences in the lifestyles when the budget constraints are equal. Here we also add the variables housing type and motorization into the assessment. The same time-use and private expenditure data as in part I and the same GHG assessment method are used here to maintain high transparency and comparability between the two parts. The results of the study imply that larger family sizes and economies-of-scale effects in the less dense areas offset the advantages of more dense living when the emissions are assessed on per capita basis. Also, at equal income levels the carbon footprints vary surprisingly little due to complementary effects of the majority of low-carbon lifestyle choices. Motorization was still found to increase the emissions, but a similar pattern regarding housing type was not found.