Energy Ecologies: Designing relational technologies to support sustainable energy practices

A successful energy transition requires more than simply replacing carbon-based energy sources with wind and solar. It will also require cultural and behavioural changes to become better aligned with the fluctuating energy supply of weather patterns, day–night cycles, and seasonal rhythms, and to reduce overall energy consumption. Without these adaptations, the energy transition will lead to harmful strains on the electric grid at times of peak demand, and the unsustainable over-extraction of rare metals and other resources necessary to produce batteries and solar panels.
The nascent field of Solar Design is exploring how this can be brought about. Professionals in this field aim to foster new perspectives on how we might live and work with solar energy. Through their products and services, they inspire new ways to think about solar cultural heritage, and promote better understandings of the delivery of energy. This approach can be seen, for example, in Pauline van Dongen’s textile solar panels, Amsterdam Energie’s solar-energy cooperatives, or Biosphere Solar’s circular solar modules that promote care and repair towards home energy systems.
In the design field at large, this attunement is informed by the broader development of More-than-Human Design and relational technologies—technologies designed to draw people into deeper relationship with the natural world. How could design techniques for relational technologies be applied to the context of solar design?
These fields are so new that theories, design practices, and cultural practices are just beginning to emerge. Practitioners have a need for practical design experiments that can help develop their products and services—to explore the design of tools that nurture positive, attuned relationships to our surrounding ecologies. This research therefore investigates the development of relational technologies in the context of solar design to help re-invigorate positive and balanced human–energy relationships in the Netherlands and beyond.