Digital technologies in the transition to a sustainable energy system:knowledge-related challenges from everyday life

Over the last decade digital technologies have developed very quickly and their widening use is fuelling visions of networks of intelligent objects, all connected to facilitate everyday life and give feedback to users, providers, and officials, so that resources are used more efficiently, and citizens in some Western countries feel engaged, willing to take more active roles as consumers, and thus enabling creative and smart solutions for current sustainability problems (Verbong et al. 2013, Beaulieu et al. 2016, Hyysalo and Juntunen 2018). A transition to energy-efficient and low-carbon systems is one of the most pressing of these problems, as it would help to reach climate change goals, as well as improve the security and reliability of energy supply. A wide range of information and communication technologies, from smart grids to smartphones and “smart building solutions”, are expected to enable energy savings and reduce carbon emissions.