Gamification in renewable energy communities: Improving energy sharing & collaboration with a community-based application

Context: The purpose of this thesis is to introduce gamification in a community-based application with the goal of improving energy sharing and collaboration within Renewable Energy Communities (RECs). As worldwide concerns about climate change, energy poverty, and energy sharing continue to grow, integrating gamification into applications has emerged as an impactful method to engage and educate users about energy-sharing practices. This thesis provides detailed insight into the synergy between RECs, community energy management, and gamification. Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) are citizen-driven initiatives that aim to promote the use of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency within local communities. They are a means to restructure our energy systems by harnessing the energy and allowing citizens to participate actively in the energy transition and thereby enjoy greater benefits. However, community energy management puts a lot of emphasis on sustainability and depends on the collective efforts of community members to change how people use and produce energy. Enercade serves as a digital platform for RECs, focusing on decarbonization, digitization, and decentralization. Its mission is to transition from fossil fuel-based centralized energy systems to local energy production and consumption, facilitated by active citizen participation. Objectives: The objectives of this thesis are: A) Designing a gamification strategy to enhance user motivation, learning, and engagement, promoting energy sharing. B) Implementing access control to ensure relevant features are visible to admins and users based on privileges. C) Optionally improving the onboarding process for new users. Method: The work done during this thesis is mainly focused on the study of gamification principles, selecting the right approach for Renewable Energy Communities, identifying the requirements for this thesis, and finally defining the gamification strategy in detail that would aim to maximize the shared energy among the Renewable Energy Communities. As a secondary focus, the access control is implemented to enable privilege-based actions for users and admins in a way that relevant features are visible only for the two types of users. To target the optional goal of improving the onboarding process, email verification is implemented using Google Firebase API. Gamification components like challenges, competitions, and leaderboards tap into users’ motivations to encourage energy-efficient behaviors and maximize shared energy. The strategy promotes a sense of shared responsibility and cooperative goal-achieving within RECs. Future Works: Future works include expanding features based on customer feedback, implementing the gamification strategy, and continuing to develop the application. This thesis underscores the importance of user engagement and motivation in achieving shared sustainability goals, empowering communities to control their energy use, and contributing to a more sustainable future.