Towards the transition to zero-carbon community: scientific framework for integrated social, economic, and technology

Qatar like most of other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is experiencing a technology-driven transformation towards a low-carbon and energy-efficient built environment. This was reflected in different government initiatives and efforts to promote and adopt the use of renewables energies to encourage the development of low carbon smart cities by intensively investing in ICT-based solutions (e.g. Lusail city in Qatar). This push is a part of a highly publicized (and controversial in academic literature) efforts to reshape urban development through megaprojects, centralized master planning and westernized approaches conveying modernism and global affluence. However, this is often contrasted with the conservative societies of the region, the large consumption footprints and the preferences of local people towards large and isolated residential houses (rather than high-rise buildings or congested high-tech cities). In this context, the idea of (smart and) connected communities that develop synergies through the use of technology and infrastructure is technically feasible and relevant for Qatar and the region. However, this idea poses several questions with regard to the premise of ‘community’ and the associated social and economic aspects such as coherence, privacy, acceptability, affordability and types of incentives that help to switch toward 100% renewable energy production and use. Community energy (CE) is one possible strategy in transition to zero-carbon energy. CE is a way of transforming the community to a zero-carbon energy system and hence focuses mainly on the participation of local community members. Globally, this strategy has gained increasing attention particularly in the United States, Australia, Germany, United Kingdom, and Denmark [1]. CE is an opportunity to offer energy initiatives as an alternative to traditional energy systems by and for local people [2-3]. CE projects bring collective benefits to a local community and are driven and carried by a group of people in this community. The outcomes of the CE mainly depends on different assumptions about processes such as decision-making, participation, and ownership, access to affordable energy, improved social capital, community empowerment, knowledge and skill development, energy literacy and environmentally lifestyles, socio-economic regeneration, and increased local support for renewable energy [4-5]. The evidence supporting the theoretical assumptions of benefits to the local community is mainly anecdotal [4]. However, despite these theoretical assumptions, there is a need for more of systematic and comparative empirical research investigations on how such benefits actually accrue [5]. These investigations should focus on the social, economic, and technological factors that can ensure the sustainable transition to zero-carbon rather than focusing on factors effecting uptake and successful implementation. A defining feature of CE is how communities participate in energy developments. The CE offers alternatives to traditional energy systems and it takes in consideration-engaging citizens’ active participation in energy production, delivery, and consumption as well as their policy perceptions [5]. CE involves open participatory practices that are built on community members’ involvement which is consider useful because it includes a more comprehensive evidence- based depending on diverse local perspectives [5-7]. The new approaches and practices of CE systems tend to strengthen community participation and are associated with bottom-up (citizen involvement and diversity of community actors) as opposed to top-down (institutionally-driven traditional systems) approaches [5,8]. Consequently, a serious effort to address the challenge of emission reduction at the community level and increased adoption of non-carbon energy source in Qatar must acknowledge the community members’ participation and considering their socio-economic factors. In this situation, residents are involved in the process that influences their lives. The reason of selecting a community in this study is that high level of place attachment may have positive emotional bonds between people and the environment. This bond can serve to motive public support or opposition to the transformation to zero-carbon energy system and to propose technology developments. This position depends if the new technologies was evaluated as posing a threat or an opportunity to the local community. Focusing on a specific space “community” helps to understand of how proposing new technologies and new technological activities such as the transformation to zero-carbon energy systems and technologies, and their associated risks can compromise and influence people’s feeling about the community where they live. This research aims at developing a scientific framework that integrates the social, economic, and technological factors that are significant in the process of the transition to zero-carbon energy at the community level. The proposed framework includes community digital twin and analytic and economic engines to evaluate options and alternatives. The framework will be designed and tested for a small community in Doha, Qatar. The objective is to develop a set of simple-to-use tools and decision constructs that can be used by planners, engineers and investors to examine different alternatives and determine a feasible set of practical solutions for the transition. This framework will give a set of well-defined “constructs” that are common to zero-carbon transition projects around the world. A set of formal constructs, that when put together gives a feasible solution toward the zero-carbon transition. These constructs will take advantage of options and alternatives on technology, operations, demand management and more. The constructs will be constrained by social, regulatory and economic factors that are programmed into the framework as part of this project.

Qatar University