From Risk to Responsibility in the Energy Sector: To What Extent Do Energy Security and Environmental Concerns Drive Prosumer Motivation?

Energy security is a growing concern driven by rising global demand, military conflict and a shift to cleaner but less predictable renewable energy systems. Energy prosumers can contribute to energy security by generating and storing energy locally, thereby supporting grid resilience and enabling them to sell surplus energy. To date, there has been no experimental investigation into how energy security may motivate householders to become prosumers. Our novel randomised experiment measured attitudes and intention using different levels of energy security compared to an established motivator, environmental protection. We found an ordinal interaction where participants were as motivated to prosume by an energy security threat as they were by environmental protection, relative to neither. When both were present, there was little added benefit. We recommend that more focus is given to energy security as a newly identified motivating factor of similar importance to environmental concerns to drive increased energy prosumerism.