The Inosculating Carrots Model of Glen Waverley

A Deep Community Analysis of Glen Waverley in Regards to Solar Energy Uptake

prior to the Introduction of a Solar Energy Innovation

This circular and holistic diagram depicts the cultural characteristics the Glen Waverley community regarding solar energy
uptake prior to an innovation’s introduction. Originally meant to be read top to bottom, it has four sections representing
events, patterns, structures and beliefs influencing the community’s culture - delimited schematically by the borders around
the large carrot. The innovation can be seen as another external system influenced by other factors (mostly) out of the
scope of this analysis (e.g., the Brundtland Report, technical progress in renewable energy, etc.). The attempt to merge the
innovation within the community is depicted by the dotted line.
Summary of Key Findings

The analysis identified Glen Waverley as a good fit for the implementation of the project,
which is expected to lead to a further innovate boost in that community, with a relatively
high confidence. This is shown by the several socio-economic and environmental evidences,
as well as invisible patterns, structures and beliefs which encourages the introduction of
innovations. However, there may be better fits for this project in other Monash city suburbs
based on the importance attributed to environmental and social considerations and
whether the city is interested to achieve a change of higher magnitude relative to the Glen
Waverley’s scenario.

System Insights

Systems thinking enables scenarios, problems, relationships, behaviors and so forth to be

understood in a holistic and dynamic way (Monat and Gannon, 2015). Such approach is
often very effective in identifying the potential inputs that an innovation may have on a
particular system. By using specific system change tools, such as the iceberg model,
theorized by Hall (1976), we are then able to dismantle the various factors which must be
taken in consideration prior to applying an innovation to the system of interest. In fact, this
model is based on the idea that visible events are derived from patterns, themselves derived
from networks of structures and mental models of varying complexity, which feeds back
onto the events.

Inosculation is the term used to describe the process in which the roots of two different
trees or plants merge, unifying the two separated entities. In the diagram above, adapted
from Hall’s (1976) Iceberg model, the Glen Waverley community is being nourished by
several cultural components, visible and invisible, ultimately composing the cultural settings
of the community in the context of solar energy technologies uptake. Outside of the direct
range of influence of these different cultural components, the smart community solar
microgrid is emerging and aims at bolstering the community through this inosculation
process.

As argued by Hofstede, Hofstede and Minkov (2010), “culture is the collective programming
of the mind, which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from
another. Culture is learnt, not innate. It derives from one social environment rather than
one’s genes.” The Inosculating Carrots model enables us to determine whether Glen
Waverley is composed of sufficient cultural components in order to be considered a
renewable energy-prone community (or put more simply, a good fit).

Innovation analysis

Smart community microgrids have been around for decades but technological
improvements in the recent period have led to significant cost reduction and improvements
in the overall recognition of their benefits in the recent period, enabling it to re-emerge as a
flexible technology which can be implemented in the most urban settings or the most rural
ones while offering clear environmental advantages (Hirsch et al., 2018, Santos et al., 2018).
The combination of the four strata mentioned in the model shows that Glen Waverley is
open to innovations in the energy sector. In fact, the medium-to-high income community is
gradually leaning towards renewable solar energy, as shown by the relatively high number
of installed solar systems (nearly one household out of three is equipped with a solar
system). This is further explained by observable factors which encourages this
implementation, such as a favorable environment and a mostly favorable socio-economic
context. Digging deeper into the analysis, we see that these observable events enable the
identification of numerous patterns encouraging the adoption of solar energy. Finally,
structures such as sustainability-oriented legislations or the influence of Monash City, as
well as a deeply rooted but dynamic belief system, developed through time and
experiences, consolidates the conclusion that Glen Waverley’s renewable energy transition
has strong foundations.

Using the Inosculating Carrots Diagram in conjunction to a Theory of Change, we are able to
estimate the readiness of the community to integrate the innovation and what other
conditions has to be met for the innovation to have a long-term positive impact (Barbrook-
Johnson and Penn, 2022). Observing the activities stated by the microgrid operator, Glen
Waverley seems to possess several traits which are likely to facilitate the supply, installation
and maintenance, promotion, monitoring and evaluation phases of the project. In particular,
the initial project requiring only 100 households is expected, with high confidence, to be
successful, particularly due to the large funds allocated to the promotion phase.

So far, the analysis has concluded that the implementation of a small community microgrid
solar system is feasible in Glen Waverley. Nonetheless, it is interesting to investigate
whether this is the most optimal option for Glen Waverley, and reciprocally, whether it is
the most optimal location for the implementation of the project, particularly in regards to
the three Sustainable Development Goals the project is targeting. First, since the community
has already been introduced to a solar innovation which is receiving positive feedback (as
shown by the uptake rate), current focus may still be centered around the individual solar
roofs, which may impede the adoption of the community microgrid. Also, Glen Waverley,
already witnessing a significant solar energy uptake rate, is heading in the right direction in
the context of renewable energy. According to optimization principles in regards to
improving the overall sustainability of Monash City, other communities should be targeted
by the project instead. In fact, if the city’s target is to optimize the impact of community
microgrids on a community and its contribution to the targeted SDGs, other suburbs in
Monash City could be analyzed based on their lower solar uptake ratios, higher ratio of
medium-to-high housing density and their more urgent need for innovation and system
change.

As a short conclusion, Glen Waverley will benefit from this project since the community is
highly likely to be interested into the introduction of an innovation. Furthermore, the
community’s cultural characteristics are encouraging in the perspective of the project
developer. Nonetheless, based on environmental considerations and the willingness to
optimize the impacts of the community solar microgrids in regards to achieving a change in
a system, Monash city should investigate whether other suburbs are be relatively preferable
beneficiaries of such innovation.
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