Experts, stakeholders, technocracy, and technoeconomic input into energy scenarios

Abstract

This paper confronts the broad question of the nature and quality of the contributions of experts, stakeholders, and the wider public to the development of detailed techno economical inputs used in scenario analyses used for discussions and decisions on the green energy transition and science, technology and innovation (STI) policies in general. The study focuses on stakeholder inclusion in developing the Danish Energy Agency's technology catalogues. The technology catalogues forecasts technoeconomic data up to 2050. The study reviews some well-recognised issues related to the inclusion of experts and stakeholders. The study contributes three new insights. First, a better understanding is developed of how expert and stakeholder inclusion in developing front-end inputs for energy models and scenarios aligns expectations and builds a shared understanding of detailed technoeconomic data. This shared understanding establishes a level playing field for wider public debate on visions for the future energy system. Second, a pragmatic approach is demonstrated for stakeholder inclusion in contexts – such as developing technology catalogues – with limited resources and only a few actors available for consultation. Third, the paper presents the argument that the concept of technocracy can bring useful insights for analysing expert and stakeholder inclusion in longterm energy planning.