Citizens' preferences on smart energy technologies and services for smart districts

The design of sustainable urban environments is one of the most pressing endeavors. Particularly the emergence of digital technologies has triggered a range of technocentric movements for urban development, such as smart cities or districts. City stakeholders, including city or district planners, public administrators, or governance stakeholders, expect technological innovations to enhance life in the city. However, citizens are under-represented in discussions about respective technical designs. Against this backdrop, we measure 2930 German citizens' preferences for smart energy technologies and services of future smart districts as a small sub-area of the city and starting point for larger change. Using Best-Worst scaling, we find that citizens prefer local energy storage, photovoltaic, and district and local heating systems. Further, a cluster analysis reveals three distinct clusters of citizens with different preferences. We describe the clusters in terms of socio-demographics, living situation, attitude to sustainability, and affinity for technology. Results provide insight by revealing citizens' preferences for smart energy technologies and services that can inform the design of future citizen-centered smart districts.