For the climate, my friends, or my region? An experimental field trial for prosumer engagement with peer-to-peer energy trading in Austria

Collective, citizen-led approaches to energy systems are key to reducing humanity's climate impact. Crucial for their success is the engagement of energy prosumers, i.e., citizens that produce energy. This paper investigates how to best activate the identities of prosumers to participate in peer-to-peer energy trading. In collaboration with the OurPower cooperative in Austria, an experimental trial was set up: 8713 households equipped with photovoltaic systems were randomly selected to receive one of three postcards. Postcards appealed to different identities, using as slogan "your climate. your electricity" or "your friends. your electricity" or "your region. your electricity". The postcards were designed to encourage prosumers to visit the OurPower webpage and register via a link and QR code to trade their energy. For our main dependent variable, the unique webpage visits, we recorded a 3.1 % response rate (N = 271 visitors out of 8713 recipients) and found that while the social identity framings (region and peer-group) did not significantly differ in response rates, they both outperformed the in-dividual climate identity framing. For click-through to express more interest (N = 73 out of 271 visitors), the region framing was more successful than the peer-group framing, but not the climate framing. For length of stay on the website (N = 145 visitors), regional framing (Mr = 73.5 s) held an advantage over the other two (Mclimate = 22.9 s; Mfriends = 17.5 s). Together, the results demonstrate that putting regional focus into the spotlight could be a promising consideration for future energy-related campaigns and interventions.