Towards an ontology of consumer acceptance in socio-technical energy systems

Policies and economics in social networks are intertwined with a physical system. Research on socio-technical systems, including eco-cities, energy systems, transport infrastructures and supply chains, tries to combine the technical engineering discipline for the physical system with the social perspective on consumer behaviour. However, efforts to develop an ontology, i.e. a shared formal conceptualisation, for socio-technical systems have so far focussed mostly on the technical part of the system. In this paper a first step is made towards inclusion of consumer acceptance by including views from communication science and psychology. This takes advantage of an extensive body of work and enables co-operation and successful communication between different fields of research. This eventually may lead to a more societal realistic ontology of socio-technical urban energy systems for eco-cities. The rationale for the approach and preliminary results of the ontology are explained using the example of a low-carbon city regarding consumer acceptance of new energy technologies.