SummaryAccording to the World Health Organization (WHO), the COVID‐19 pandemic has been the greatest challenge to humanity since World War II. Spain is one of the countries experiencing severe consequences from the COVID‐19 pandemic outbreak. In such a situation, when the population is quarantined, hospitals are crowded, and industries are shutting down; energy supply becomes a critical and “hard to predict” service. In this way, the study of the impact of COVID‐19 on the selling price of electricity in Spain is highlighted more comprehensively. Given the high level of uncertainty in global energy markets, there is a research gap that needs to be filled, that is, the creation of new decision support mechanisms that can reduce risks and ensure more significant forecasting for investments and energy management to deal with seemingly unprecedented effects experienced through the current pandemic. This study examines and develops econometric models to determine the impact of COVID‐19 on the Spanish electricity market. This article's main result is a framework that predicts the dynamic electricity market's behavior during shifting periods, that is, the COVID‐19 pandemic period. Noteworthy that the result of this article is useful in electricity market management and strategic developments.

This study explores the dynamics of energy use patterns, climate change issues and the relationship between social-psychological factors, with residents' acceptance of and willingness to pay (WTP) for home energy management systems (HEMS) during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York. The results of our survey suggest that there were no longer morning or evening usage peaks on weekdays, and a significant portion of respondents are experiencing higher or much higher electricity use than average. Most residents' perception of climate change issues during COVID-19 remained unchanged. Attitude, perceived behavioral control, and social norms are overall the strongest predictors of adoption intention and WTP for HEMS. Regarding WTP for specific well-being features, attitude was the strongest positive predictor of telemedical and home security features, and social norms are the strongest positive predictor of elderly assistance and job search. Technology anxiety, surprisingly, positively influences WTP for the well-being features. Trust in utilities is not related to adoption intention, but is positively associated with WTP for the well-being features. Although cybersecurity concerns are positively associated with HEMS adoption intention for energy and well-being features, this relationship is not significant in WTP. Residents who had moderate perceived risk of getting COVID-19 are willing to pay more than the high- and low-risk groups. This paper addresses the interactions among technology attributes, and users' social-psychological and demographics factors. Additionally, this study provides insights for further research in examining technology adoption and energy dynamics during times of crises, such as the COVID-19.

With a global transition to electric vehicles (EVs) slowly gaining traction, it is expedient to move the debate to issues connected to geography, space, and place. One of these emerging issues is the uptake of EVs in rural areas. This paper provides a spatial state of affairs in the Nordic region and it explores how EVs are perceived and argued to fit within rural-suburban-urban categories by users and potential adopters. To do so, it draws on a mix of original and secondary data: (1) a randomized survey among 4322 respondents, (2) 227 expert interviews, (3) eight focus groups conducted across Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway, and (4) geographically mapped municipal level vehicle registrations across Norway and Sweden. This data shows that while the uptake primarily takes place in (sub)urban regions, EVs are used in rural environments, partly for self-sufficiency reasons. After acknowledging that individual choices and circumstances dictate final purchase decisions, the paper concludes that planners and researchers should be aware off and, if possible, prevent that a skewed urbanized popularity keeps people elsewhere from looking at EVs as a viable option.

•Offers a nuanced and fuller account of the role of futures in sustainability transitions.•The Sociology of Expectations focusses on the performativity of desirable futures.•Ignored are undesirable futures and their performativity as studied by Critical Security Studies.•This paper synthesizes both literatures, illustrated with a case study of Nordic electric vehicles.

Over the last decade or more, the automobility literature has sought to observe and affect the dynamic tenacity of passenger vehicles. This paper takes up a recent call to actually study how private electric vehicles (EVs) are changing automobility. For this, it identifies four qualitative categories of automobility: general vehicle use, the car in daily life, vehicle symbolism and the effects of electrification. We study how these categories are affected by electric vehicles based on original data we gathered during a large empirical research project in the five Nordic countries, consisting of 227 expert interviews, 8 focus groups and 4322 randomized survey respondents. We find a paradoxical relationship between EVs and automobility. Some aspects embed and strengthen car-based mobility and the current automobility regime, as EVs essentially offer a substitution technology. In other contexts, however, EVs challenge, threaten, and open up questions about automobility and germinate an awareness that it cannot continue as is. We conclude by arguing that the moment transport policy acknowledges this dualism and smartly links up to other developments in transport, like automation and connectivity, policy efforts can be designed to minimize drawbacks and emphasize strengths.

Electric vehicles are perceived as a key alternate to internal combustion engine vehicles for a transition to a decarbonized society. However, this transition towards the electrification of transport has not made equal progress globally, and faced several impediments to consumer adoption of EVs across the Nordic region and beyond. While there has been a multitude of reasons provided in the literature, we aim to characterize the barriers that remain to electrification today, as well as their perceived interconnections and futures. To provide insight into this query, the authors conducted 227 semi-structured interviews with transportation and electricity experts from 201 institutions across seventeen cities in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The qualitative results and consequent cluster analysis show that common barriers like range, price and charging infrastructure continue to persist, despite technological advancements over the recent years. At the same time, results also show that barriers are highly interconnected and are commonly connected to consumer knowledge and experience. The article concludes with a discussion of policy implications of the findings and potential future research.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming the next automotive technology to be widely diffused in society. However, many structural challenges remain to be addressed around the EV socio-technical system as the technology progresses from a niche to early and late mass markets. This study investigates the challenges for electric vehicles focusing on their current and future business implications. For this purpose, we rely on a robust sample of 227 semi-structured interviews, conducted by the authors, with transportation and electricity experts from 201 institutions across seventeen cities in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Our findings show that EVs currently face an unfavourable business case, led by the legacy of the petrol and diesel car industries, and national market conditions. This results in an unsuitable business model and supply chain that compromises EV production and market offerings. Additionally, we find that for wide diffusion in society, EVs will change the traditional automotive selling chain, directly affecting selling methods (i.e. dealerships), maintenance revenue streams and refuelling (recharging) structures. It is therefore essential to adopt new models, practices and methods of business that are suitable for EV diffusion.

Despite all the scientific and technological developments in the past one hundred years, biologic issues such as pandemics are a constant threat to society. While one of the aspects of a pandemic is the loss of human life, the outbreak has multi-dimensional impacts across regional and global societies. In this paper, a comparative regressive and neural network model is developed to analyze the impacts of COVID-19 (coronavirus) on the electricity and petroleum demand in China. The environmental analysis shows that the epidemic severeness significantly affects the electricity and the petroleum demand, both directly and indirectly. The outputs of the model stated that the elasticity of petroleum and electricity demand toward the population of the infected people is -0.1% and -0.65%, respectively. The mentioned results show that pandemic status has a significant impact on energy demand, and also its impacts can be tracked into every corner of human society.

This study investigates the interconnected influence of socio-demographics, behavioral, economic, and technical factors associated with electric vehicle (EV) adoption interest and the influence of vehicle-to-grid mobility on preferences. Using hierarchical regression analysis, we examine the impacts of six dimensions relating to socio-demographic, technical, economic, and behavioral factors in a survey (n = 4885) across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Our results show that younger males, with higher income, a higher number of children, and who had experiences with EVs, and generally hold sustainability values are positively related to potential EV adoption. Among electric mobility attributes, vehicle-to-grid capability and charging time are determined to be the influential predictors. Adding vehicle-to-grid capability can foster EV adoption in our analysis, considering it can add a revenue stream for EV owners. Individuals continue to use specific knowledge of conventional fuel vehicles when considering EVs and their attributes. Among all of our factors, the fuel economy, financial savings, and environmental value were the strongest predictors. In comparison, the driving range was ranked less critical to former EV owners than to a conventional car and current EV owners. Battery life was ranked more important to conventional fuel vehicle owners than current and former EV owners. Finally, former EV owners considered vehicle-to-grid to be more important than current EV and conventional car owners, implying that vehicle-to-grid could be the marginal incentive that would be the "tipping point."

The electrification of vessels/ferries for green transformation requires onboard electrical energy storage as well as an energy supply network in the port area. In this context, a lot of efforts have been made in the last decade that have been reviewed in such a way that only a single aspect of the green transformation challenge is highlighted. Consequently, the objective of this research is to develop knowledge by examining the current state of affairs and provide, accordingly, abstract implementation guidelines for green transformation through vessel/ferry electrification. A comprehensive study on the electrification of vessels, in industry as well as in academia, is performed. Based on the data collected through a systematic study, a comparison of various pure electric and hybrid vessels in terms of certain performance attributes, such as battery capacity, passenger and cargo capacities, and size (length) of the vessel, is performed. Moreover, the distribution of vessels according to different countries and manufacturers is provided. Finally, certain technical, operational, and legislative challenges are explored.

This study is motivated by the prospect of needing to harness significant flows of investment and finance, along with private sector commitment, towards decarbonizing passenger transport in Europe. It asks: what types of actors and stakeholder groups, business models, and resulting innovation activity systems might vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology create or accelerate? Based primarily on qualitative research interviews and focus groups in five countries—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and a comprehensive literature review, the study assess stakeholder perceptions of primary and secondary business models for V2G. It identifies at least twelve meaningful stakeholder types and corresponding business markets: automotive manufacturers, battery manufacturers, vehicle owners, energy suppliers, transmission and distribution system operators, fleets, aggregators, mobility-as-a-service providers, renewable electricity independent power providers, public transit operators, secondhand markets and secondary markets. These business models fall into the five clusters of equipment, grid services, aggregation, bundling, and secondary markets. We then examine how these business models differ by innovation activity systems—that is, by content, structure, and governance. We lastly translate these findings into policy recommendations of relevance for all types of countries.

While vehicle-to-grid technology could provide substantial benefits to consumers and society, its adoption has been confined to a niche and relatively stagnant. In this article, we study the role of user-based innovations in increasing the acceptance and adoption of niche technologies such as vehicle-to-grid. To do so, we connect three interrelated concepts—tinkering, testing and tacit knowledge—and then theorize how they interact in three theories—diffusion of innovation, social construction of technology, and the multi-level perspective. Drawing from a rich set of original data, we then apply the theorization of user-based innovation to the adoption of vehicle-to-grid in the Nordic region, by focusing on how users can influence an emerging state-of-the-art innovation, vehicle-to-X. We find that the three concepts of tinkering, testing, and tacit knowledge should be encouraged in order to accelerate and stabilize the adoption of vehicle-to-grid. We conclude the study by examining how the theorization of tinkering may benefit the understanding of other technologies’ diffusion pathways and recommend directions for future research.

Social media have been widely recognized as critical communication channel in disaster situations. However, there is limited empirical investigation on how the intersecting issues of social order, environmental impacts, and crisis communication unfold from the perspective of a social media user. This study examines 60,449 tweets to and from the news media in Florida during and immediately after Hurricane Irma in September, 2017. Based on a critical review of the literature coupled with an eight-category coding scheme (including second-hand reporting, reporting on self-experience, requesting help, coordinating relief efforts, and expressing well wishes), the article assesses the content and timing of tweets before, during, and after the storm. It finds that thematically, twitter coverage not only covers the storm itself but pressing social issues such as looting, price gouging, the privileging of elites in rebuilding efforts, environmental vulnerability, and abandoning pets. Temporally, the volume of different tweets peaked and dropped at different stages; for example, tweets about personal experience peaked when the hurricane hit the ground while requests for help peaked in the days after the hurricane. The study allows for a better understanding of the sociological, environmental, and even social justice impacts and related disaster response through the use of social media.

The electrification of vessels/ferries for green transformation requires onboard electrical energy storage as well as an energy supply network in the port area. In this context, a lot of efforts have been made in the last decade that have been reviewed in such a way that only a single aspect of the green transformation challenge is highlighted. Consequently, the objective of this research is to develop knowledge by examining the current state of affairs and provide, accordingly, abstract implementation guidelines for green transformation through vessel/ferry electrification. A comprehensive study on the electrification of vessels, in industry as well as in academia, is performed. Based on the data collected through a systematic study, a comparison of various pure electric and hybrid vessels in terms of certain performance attributes, such as battery capacity, passenger and cargo capacities, and size (length) of the vessel, is performed. Moreover, the distribution of vessels according to different countries and manufacturers is provided. Finally, certain technical, operational, and legislative challenges are explored.

Several studies have investigated large scale renewables, electricity networks and the potential for a supergrid, both in the US and the Europe. However, much of this work is focused on technical and economic barriers and under-recognises social, political and other non-technical aspects. This paper builds a conceptual framework to analyse the non-technical barriers, engagement of stakeholders and social risks to the proposed supergrids in the US and Europe. In doing so, we find 12 different non-technical situations (barriers) on each region that are present in the implementation of a supergrid, and can help guide the development of these economically efficient projects to address the social barriers and risks that they may face. From our results, we suggest a set of policy recommendations, parting with the introduction of an overarching body of governance for the coordination and implementation of the supergrid. This, we hope, provides a map and encouragement for policymakers, investors and stakeholders looking to develop and complete these megaprojects; recognising that some configuration of a supergrid is required to achieve a full penetration of renewables. Therefore, the results of this paper have a significant contribution in decarbonising energy production and supply systems, complying with national and international climate ambitions.

Vehicle-to-grid has a myriad of potential benefits, though they can roughly be characterized into three central themes that align with different elements of sociotechnical systems. These themes include technical, economic, and environmental elements, and each impacts different actors and has different scopes, ranging from the individual to society. That is, V2G offers benefits in being cheaper and faster than other energy storage devices, while also offering novel economic revenues to consumers and reducing the environmental damages from both the electricity and transport sectors. Of course, many of these benefits are intertwined with other dimensions of the sociotechnical system, especially the co-evolution of the electricity grid and adoption of electric vehicles, which the chapter discusses next.