A Longitudinal Study

The social, cultural, economic and technical aspects of moving rapidly to the low carbon economy are not well understood. Such uncertainty is often used as a pretext for policy procrastination. However lack of evidence is not evidence of lack. Therefore WREN is developing the infrastructure for its becoming a longitudinal study designed to better understand the process of change, and so allow the replication elsewhere of effective measures. We are working with funded researchers to undertake this work, as it is essential that any outcomes are objectively based.

This work ranges across many disciplines as the shift to the low carbon economy has a range of strands, including:

• Technical (renewable generation from a variety of sources, demand management, changed transport arrangements, smart grid – we are in discussion with WPD -, amongst others);
• Social and psychological (acceptance and adoption of a differing relationship to energy)
• Economic (including economic benefits and disbenefits of differing energy, food and transport arrangements)
• Policy (attributes of a distributed energy system)

We invite those potentially interested in collaborative research to contact us on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .