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Short abstract:

This paper illustrates how codesigning and building a small-scale renewable energy technology with students unfolds and how it can be institutionalized in schools through unpacking interrelations and tensions across different scales such as artifacts, people and institutions.

Long abstract:

Citizen-led renewable energy initiatives are a key player in accelerating inclusive and democratic energy transition. Recently, the urgency of addressing global warming at an unprecedented rate requires more diverse types of communities to engage in energy transition. Educational institutions (schools) have a great potential to teach not only energy citizenship but also create novel and innovative forms of engagements for youth who are a key stakeholder as well as a minority in the current energy transition. This paper reports on an action research project that investigates how codesign activities, combined with a Do-It-Yourself method, can support energy innovation and by extension foster transition from mere educational institutions into a community of practice around energy innovation. Six projects were conducted in five secondary schools in Finland and South Korea, and data was collected in each site from the stage of planning to designing and use. Inspired by situational analysis, we broaden our analytic view to map the interrelations and tensions across artifacts, people, institutions, national and international norms and standards, and so on, which reveal opportunities and barriers across different scales. The projects of codesigning and building a small-scale renewable energy technology unfolded across different scales of both education and energy domains. We also discuss concord and conflict between the scales and the impact on how the renewable energy generators could be embraced in the school. This lends insights into how such initiatives can be “institutioned” and how energy communities can be supported.