Bridging Social and Technical Sciences: Introduction of the Societal Embeddedness Level
article
The successful and fast development and deployment of renewable energy and greenhouse
gas reduction technologies is a continuing and structural challenge. The deployment of these technologies
is slowed down and sometimes even stalled due to societal challenges like public resistance,
lack of appropriate policy and regulations, unsolid business cases and uncertainty concerning the
impact on the environment. In this paper we elaborate on societal aspects that influence technology
development and deployment and introduce the societal embeddedness level (SEL) framework.
Building upon the technology readiness level (TRL), the SEL framework enables the assessment of
the current level of societal embeddedness of energy technologies in order to identify the societal
aspects which need to be taken into account to accelerate deployment of energy technologies. The
SEL framework takes into account four societal dimensions (impact on the environment, stakeholder
involvement, policy and regulations, and market and financial resources) and four stages of technology
development (exploration, development, demonstration and deployment) that are linked to
the TRL. The SEL framework has been elaborated for CCS technologies and is being applied to the
monitoring of geological CO2 storage by the ACT II project DigiMon (Digital Monitoring of CO2
storage projects). DigiMon is an ACT second call project, funded by the national funding agencies in
the period September 2019–August 2022.
gas reduction technologies is a continuing and structural challenge. The deployment of these technologies
is slowed down and sometimes even stalled due to societal challenges like public resistance,
lack of appropriate policy and regulations, unsolid business cases and uncertainty concerning the
impact on the environment. In this paper we elaborate on societal aspects that influence technology
development and deployment and introduce the societal embeddedness level (SEL) framework.
Building upon the technology readiness level (TRL), the SEL framework enables the assessment of
the current level of societal embeddedness of energy technologies in order to identify the societal
aspects which need to be taken into account to accelerate deployment of energy technologies. The
SEL framework takes into account four societal dimensions (impact on the environment, stakeholder
involvement, policy and regulations, and market and financial resources) and four stages of technology
development (exploration, development, demonstration and deployment) that are linked to
the TRL. The SEL framework has been elaborated for CCS technologies and is being applied to the
monitoring of geological CO2 storage by the ACT II project DigiMon (Digital Monitoring of CO2
storage projects). DigiMon is an ACT second call project, funded by the national funding agencies in
the period September 2019–August 2022.
Topics
TNO Identifier
981819
Source
Energies, 15
Article nr.
6252
Files
To receive the publication files, please send an e-mail request to TNO Repository.