Accounting for socio-spatial impacts of energy storage technologies: learning from energy infrastructures literature

Energy storage technologies are seen as critical to meeting decarbonisation policies in the UK as well as internationally. The focus in policy and practice to date has been to make energy storage technically viable, with little attention given to their impact on people, community, and places they inhabit. Studies show that energy infrastructures do have significant implications on people’s social relations, energy practices, wellbeing, and health. However, accounting for these impacts in the context of energy storage has been fragmented and poorly defined. The purpose of this review is to bring together the disparate literatures covering impacts of energy infrastructures on people and inhabited places, with a view to draw attention to the multiplicity of effects energy storage may present. The literature review draws on semi-systematic methods, focusing on published international research. The benefits of the review are twofold. First, it provides novel insight for policy makers, practitioners, and academics on the complex impacts (social, technical, spatial) generated by energy infrastructures across sectors and scales, with a view to highlight the potential implications energy storage might have. Second, it helps understand the important role of energy storage systems in reducing carbon emissions and prepare for their predicted substantial growth across the UK and Northern Europe in the next 5 years.