Exploring the willingness and evolutionary process of public participation in community shared energy storage projects: Evidence from four first-tier cities in China

Community shared energy storage projects (CSES) are a key initiative for maintaining grid stability in the process of advancing the low-carbon transition of energy systems. Understanding the public's willingness to participate is fundamental to CSES implementation and promotion. However, limited research has focused on this topic. This study investigated the public's willingness to participate in CSES, based on an extended technology acceptance model, and used social network modeling to explore the evolutionary process of public participation in CSES under different policy combination scenarios. Empirical data were obtained from online questionnaire surveys in four first-tier cities in China (N = 1276). The results show that (1) the majority (approximately 71.48%) of residents have a higher willingness to participate in CSES, but their willingness to invest in it is lower (22.32 yuan/month). Residents with lower willingness mainly believed that they should not pay extra maintenance and management fees for energy storage equipment, followed by concerns about the safety of this equipment. (2) Economic benefits, functional value, risk affordability, peer influence, and personal altruism are the determining factors that affect public participation in CSES. (3) Social interaction is beneficial for information transmission, thereby reducing the cognitive differences among the public regarding CSES. (4) The "economic incentive and mandatory" policy combination has significantly increased the proportion of public participation in CSES, but there is psychological resistance from the public toward policy implementation in the early stages. The "economic incentive and publicity" policy combination can promote public participation in CSES slightly. The combination of economic incentives, mandatory policies, and publicity policies has a synergistic effect. These findings provide new insights for application research in energy technology innovation.