The Smart Grid Discourse – A Global Discourse Field Analysis

Abstract

When dealing with the transition towards a decarbonized energy system, Smart Grid(s) represent one of the key terms to describe future local electricity grids. To get a picture of the discourse field around Smart Grids, online social media platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn provide abundant empirical material. Especially the microblog Twitter covers a large share of the world-wide digital communication between groups of experts and the public. For this policy brief, we analyzed the communication on Twitter over 8 months from December 2015 to July 2016 in a bi-monthly interval. Such analysis provides insights for policy makers and potential new actors in the field, who lack tacit knowledge or access to strategic intelligence on the broad range of topics within the Smart Grid discourse.