Why aren't we teaching this? Smart local energy systems and the young person's perspective

With the UK government's target of Net Zero by 2050, alongside the rising cost of energy in the UK, it is imperative that public opinion aligns with and promotes affordable, greener energy systems. Within this dialogue, young people’s voices and lived experience are needed to deepen the impact of energy policy intervention strategies. This article stresses the importance of a formal curriculum that informs future generations on the subjects of Smart Local Energy Systems (SLES), and the digitalisation advances of energy systems. This paper explores the development of a toolkit to educate and engage young people in these subjects, and reviews young people’s attitudes and understanding from three schools in England, UK. We find through an interpretive qualitative analysis of both images drawn by the young people, and insights gathered from focus groups, that i) for these young people, SLES are a useful innovation regarding energy management and distribution, ii) young people recognise that the education system as it currently stands is not aware of, or informed by smart energy technologies and iii) that despite being a generation that is the most integrated with personal assistance technology, these young people have significant concerns over the reliability and safety of AI in SLES. These findings are set alongside calls for widespread education in key stages 4 and 5 (ages 14-18) around the subject of SLES, and their benefits to wider society, thereby enabling a future that empowers young people to make change, encourage engineering and computer science-based career options and secure a fairer, cleaner, sustainable energy transition in the future.