Unveiling the marginal role of energy storage solutions in Italy: Insights from semantic network analysis of online news

Adopting energy storage systems is crucial in the transition to sustainable energy sources. However, significant obstacles hinder their widespread use, often attributed to socio-cultural factors such as low user awareness. In this study, we examine the societal awareness of energy storage in Italy by analyzing online news, through innovative methods and tools of text mining and network analysis. Our analysis of over 143,000 energy-related articles published on major Italian news outlets identifies prominent discourse topics, specifically focusing on energy storage, and assesses their semantic context. Our results demonstrate that media coverage can play a vital role in increasing awareness and societal acceptance of energy storage solutions, thus facilitating their potential market uptake. Leveraging the visibility of these themes and connecting the concept of storage with specific arguments in the energy discourse could help engage a broader audience in implementing this technology. Our approach provides valuable insights into media narratives and can inform future communications strategies. We present metrics that are useful as marketing tools and can help policymakers and organizations assess their communication strategies.