New energy technologies are sources of controversy; think of public opposition to wind parks. Controversies arise from value conflicts between stakeholders. Responsible innovation suggests that the diversity of relevant values is assessed and carefully evaluated in the development and implementation of energy projects. Whereas controversy is often seen as a barrier to implementation, we take the position that controversies can be regarded as an informal assessment of the energy project. Controversies articulate the conflicting values at stake and reveal unanticipated societal and ethical risks, and associated costs and benefits. We distinguish informal assessment from formal assessment. Formal assessment involves tools such as environmental impact assessment and (social) cost-benefit analysis to evaluate and ascertain formally established public values, associated with safety, health and economy. However, such (legally) formalized tools cannot cover the wide and variable range of values that an energy project puts at stake for different people in society. As a result, formal assessment methods often become debated in controversy, for instance because their scope and process is not considered appropriate for the project at hand. As such they can be seen as imperfect (and sometimes even counterproductive) in supporting public-private decision-making for socially responsible energy projects. To overcome this problem we aim to develop a methodology to enrich the assessment of energy projects by linking formal assessment to societal informal assessment. We will do so by 1) ex-post analysis of (non)controversial energy projects and 2) action research in running projects in which the methodology will be developed and evaluated. Keywords: 1. Energy 2. Controversy 3. Assessment 4. Public values 5. Institutions 6. Stakeholder participation

The proposed research project addresses the moral valuation of the development of smart energy systems. Smart energy systems comprise the ICT enabled low voltage electricity grids, the smart meters as ?gatekeepers? and the advanced technologies inside the homes that are able to monitor and control the use of energy. Smart energy systems are very instrumental to realize more sustainable energy supply and use. However, there are serious ethical concerns related to their use, concerning privacy, security, reliability, or affordability. Our approach is multidisciplinary. For the identification of societal values we build on the capability approach, which allows us to go beyond individual preferences and interests. For the quantitative evaluation we use Agent Based Modeling (ABM) in order to explore and evaluate the consequences of possible value conflicts for the institutional and technical stability and reliability of possible energy systems. The capability approach thereby determines the degrees of freedom of the actors. This is an innovative approach in which the capability approach is formalized for the first time. For the development of organizational and innovative business models we build on institutional economics, which allows us to relate ethical values to institutional and technical arrangements.