Erwin van Laethem, Chief Innovation Officer, RWE Group. Presented at Crowdsourcing Week Europe 2015. For more information or to join the next event: http://crowdsourcingweek.com/

1. Resolving Issues in the
Energy Transition
What do
Experts & Crowd
tell us
?
Erwin van Laethem
ENERGY

2. Mother Earth :
Reduce CO2
Markets :
more international & more volatile
Moore’s Law :
digital & IoT
ENERGY

3. © Synthetron 2015
Crowd energy
decentralised
consumer
+ producer
=prosumer
... want it ...
Technology
... can do it ...
What is holding
them back ?
ENERGY

4. © Synthetron 2015
Crowd energy
Markets
Activation
Bottle Necks
ENERGY

5. © Synthetron 2015
2 Synthetron
discussions
on Crowd Energy
market
8 &13 October 2015
Instant
short list
of
top opinions
& ideas
evolutionary
discussion
clever
virtual scalable
table setting
Deep analysis
actionable
insight
Online
www
moderated
Qualified data
set
synthetrons

6. © Synthetron 2015
Expert
Panels
bipolar
Active
opposing
views
expert low
consensus
both
Expert Mini Crowd
Participants
17 9
Messeges
212 118
consensus 13%
Low
treshhold
23%
Normal
treshold
Bipolarity
33% 38%
V
><

7. © Synthetron 2015
Two schools
EXP. START EXP. END CROWD
CAVEAT : SMALL NUMBERS
• No non-believers
• Experts more optimistic
• significant difference believers and non-
believers

8. © Synthetron 2015
script
8CONFIDENTIAL
1. Imagine … crowd energy market ..
What picture comes to mind? What
will change for you?
2. Poll: Do you find this an attractive
picture? Explain… What
..attractive? Hope? .. Less
attractive fear?
3. Now you’re a prosumer …. How do
you expect to sell? What market
mechanism do you expect?
4. Now … what will trigger you to
invest ?
5. Do you believe it will….?
6. How can we get the crowd to
actively build the crowd sourced
market?
1. Poll Do you believe .. in 5 years ..?
• what is particularly attractive ?
2. What image ..10 years from now?
• ..main actors then?
• How and where will value be
created, money be generated ?
• Who ..the winners, losers ?
3. …most important bottleneck that
prevents this market to develop?
4. …key enablers for a large scale decentral
energy system to take off?
5. Poll Do you believe .. in 5 years ..?
• what question for crowd of people
and ask them to find solutions for.?
• What is your personal take away?

9. © Synthetron 2015
How does it look like?
Expert panel
Winners
•platform,
•prosumer - local communities
•peer to peer btb
•storage and traders
Losers
Incumbent players?
Value
•for prosumer
•new service provider
•lower energy cost, dependence
and consumption

10. © Synthetron 2015
Change forces?
Expert panel
Positive driving forces
•good : more social sharing, power to
prosumers, less dependent, more
resilience
•the technical progress digitalisation IoT
storage, cost solar..
• .. Maybe government
• .. Maybe some black outs?
Bottlenecks
•uncertainty about crow activation and
cost incentives
•many things are not clear yet
•non existence of market mechanism
•lack of policy and to restrictive
regulation
•resistance from incumbent players.
Enablers
•engagement involvement of customers,
prosumers, local opinion makers…
•funding
•lobby
•transparent easy pricing
•technology
Activation switch ?
•because people think it is better, good
for society, their image,..
•market de-regulation
•direct p2P sales
•pushed because today
underperformances
•because it is economical attractive

11. © Synthetron 2015
How does it look like?
Crowd mini panel
Losers
•Centralised energy model
•International energy suppliers
•CO2 & fossil fuels
Consumption
•Local
•Regulated infrastructure
•Sharing economy (fee based access)
•(locally) shared investments

12. © Synthetron 2015
Change forces?
Crowd mini panel
Positive driving forces
Good :
• Local
• Green
• Independent from (foreign) energy
providers
• profitable
Bottlenecks
•High cost associated with green energy
setups
•Difficult to set up?
•Uncertain investment climate
•Changing rules
Enablers
•Regulated long term stable investment
climate
•Stable subsidy
•Infrastructure provided
•Organised sharing economy/ market
Activation switch ?
•Easy
•Earn money
•Prospect of self sufficiency
•Sharing economy
•Hope that it will go fast
• and become big/ significant

13. © Synthetron 2015
© Synthetron 2015
Reflection
ENERGY

14. © Synthetron 2015
conclusion?
ENERGY ?