Emerging energy transitions: PV uptake beyond subsidies

Abstract

a b s t r a c tIn the past decade there has been a substantial increase in the uptake of residential solar photovoltaic (PV) systems globally, which is starting to impact upon traditional electricity systems. An emerging energy transition is being driven by actions taken by actors at the grassroots level, and enabled by declining technology costs and new niche business models. However, to date, most work exploring change in energy systems has tended to focus on technological innovation and economic processes, leaving social aspects and daily activities under-addressed. Similarly, most theories that consider individual behaviour have tended to neglect the wider system of change. This paper presents an approach for simultaneously exploring behavioural and systemic change and demonstrates its use in a case study of PV uptake in New Zealand. The Energy Cultures framework is used alongside the Multi-Level Perspective of socio-technical transitions to examine the broad range of factors driving, shaping, and constraining PV uptake, and the interactions between global and national landscapes, the socio-technical regime within which users are taking action, and the niche opportunities emerging. Taking an integrating approach allows these perspectives to be brought together, providing valuable insights as to how adoption might be promoted or constrained, and the implications this may have for the future management of electricity grids.

Is there a Prosumer Pathway? Exploring household solar energy development in Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom

“…Such a mass market could be regarded mature when prosuming gradually becomes independent of subsidies. According to this understanding, none of the three countries studied here show fully mature markets, although examples are emerging in some jurisdictions [27]. Support schemes have been significantly reduced in both Germany and the UK; while this has had visible impact on prosuming uptake, reductions in PV costs may still lead households to install PV panels.…”

“…Other studies indicate that approaches to market developments from a 'Varieties of Capitalism' perspective can have important implications for the general uptake of renewables and PV [24]. This may be connected to the observation that in some countries public economic incentives have had an important role in stimulating prosumer developments [1,25], while in other countries household PV uptake has occurred with minimal or no public support [26,27]. PV developments have been shown to be relatively disconnected from natural resource endowments [28], but have been connected to economic support, reduction of transaction costs and bureaucratic hurdles, as well as maturing markets [6].…”

“…The background has been roughly similar in all three cases: technological developments. Photovoltaics have seen a radical price reduction globally; and in some countries, support systems are apparently not needed to increase PV installation rates [27]. This does not undermine the hardly surprising finding that generous support schemes boost prosuming, and that changes in support have significant influence on national installation rates.…”

Between hesitation and decisiveness—Understanding consumers' ego, altruism, and eagerness to pay for renewable energy

“…Social cognitive theories have long been used to explore the adoption of renewable energy and sustainable innovation. Various scholars have employed the lenses of sociotechnical transition models (Dijk, Wells, & Kemp, 2016), innovation ecosystems (Tsujimoto, Kajikawa, Tomita, & Matsumoto, 2017), sustainability management (Luederitz et al, 2016), energy cultures (Ford et al, 2017), escalation of commitment (Ross & Staw, 1993), moral norm activation (Schwartz, 1970), valuebelief-norm model (Stern et al, 1999), and moral self-regulation (Bandura, 2007). These approaches have facilitated the examination of the social acceptance of renewable energy and sustainable innovations.…”

“…Past literature (Barbarossa & De Pelsmacker, 2016;Foxon & Pearson, 2008;Stigka, Paravantis, & Mihalakakou, 2014) identifies the crucial element of a successful innovation in the natural resources sector: social acceptance. Studies have identified the following factors as key to consumers' eagerness to adopt renewable energy: egoistic economizing values associated with up-front investment, altruistic values associated with concerns for national prosperity, protections of employees, and sunk costs, and ecological values associated with concerns for the environment (Ford et al, 2017;Ross & Staw, 1993;Yan & Spangenberg, 2018). However, academic research has ignored the incompatible influences of different consumer logics on the adoption of these innovations.…”