Paper short abstract:

This paper describes futures work that has been performed when planning a delphi panel survey for imagining and constructing a ‘Smart Energy Transition’ to a ‘Paris Compatible’ energy system.

Paper long abstract:

This paper describes futures work that has been performed when planning a delphi panel survey for imagining and constructing a 'Smart Energy Transition' to a 'Paris Compatible' energy system. These open expressions imply a malleable network of potential actors, multiple interpretations and an interplay between policy and technology. An interactive delphi process hence becomes a site of arbitration over likely and desirable energy futures. Moreover, the process is circumscribed by supporting funding instruments, previous knowledge and the academic interests amongst the panel organisers. Based on different empirical data including participant observation, position papers, presentations and interview data, we take account of the consolidation of interest among the researchers of a 'Smart Energy Transition'-project in Finland and the enactment of a collective understanding in a form of a delphi panel and survey questions. The outcome, we argue, is a mix of specific academic interests of the organisers, public energy discourses such as 'energy security' as well as neoliberal policy approaches of seeing futures as business opportunities.