Does site selection need to be democratized? A case study of grid-tied microgrids in Australia

The choice of suitable sites for microgrids is not only a techno-economic process. Many aspects are important in understanding community support (or lack thereof) for the planning and deployment of grid integration. Alongside usual techno-economic considerations, the site selection process itself must be responsive to the local socio-political context and concerns (e.g., multiple values, needs and expectations of energy infrastructure or perceived fairness of technology deployment). In our project, we developed, in close collaboration with our local partners, an integrated site selection method to address these multiple imperatives. To this end, in addition to socio-technical considerations, our method seeks to (further) democratize network integration technology and its deployment so that it takes into account energy vulnerabilities and inequalities and fully integrates the views of the most affected (especially the most vulnerable) stakeholders into well-informed, place-based deliberative processes. With the support of the method we detail in this paper, we suggest that researchers and practitioners invest time and resources in developing more democratic and place-based site selection methods for microgrids.