Prosumer Preferences Regarding the Adoption of Micro-Generation Technologies: Empirical Evidence for German Homeowners

Abstract

This paper investigates the preferences of homeowners in Germany regarding the adoption of renewable energy-based micro-generation technologies using data from a survey with a discrete choice experiment. In the German policy debate, private households, in their possible joint roles as electricity producers and consumers, are discussed as potential key actors for the transition of the energy system towards a decentralized energy market based on renewable energies. In our study, we address the relevance of investment and usage characteristics as well as the perceived importance of both private and social costs and benefits behind prosumer preferences for the adoption of generic electricity micro-generation technologies. The empirical investigation is based on a conditional logit model. The results show the perceived usefulness of electricity self-supply, indicating that the motivation for electricity "prosuming" is about more than just using green electricity and undertaking a profitable (energy) investment. Policy makers should not rely on the intrinsic motivation of households to contribute towards climate protection but instead take social effects more strongly into account in their policies which aim to foster the energy system transition ("Energiewende"). Further, both energy policies and business models should avoid the introduction of overly complex measures which might be too demanding on households.

Residential Photovoltaic Systems in Norway: Household Knowledge, Preferences and Willingness to Pay

“…Consistent with previous studies, findings also report that awareness differs across socio-economic groups, with less awareness being observed among women and young people [21]. A study of German consumers indicates the motivation for microgeneration technologies is not only using green electricity and a profitable investment in new technology, but also the possibility for using their own produced electricity [22]. Greater insights on customers' knowledge and preferences are needed to understand the development of prosumers.…”

Attitudes, preferences, and intentions of German households concerning participation in peer-to-peer electricity trading

“…-Intrinsic and extrinsic values: Ideology (anti-capitalism, moral, social responsibility, generosity), expression of modern lifestyle (self-identity, image/signaling), social norm 2 Motivation for participation in the sharing economy (e.g. Bucher et al, 2016;Balck and Cracau, 2015;Hamari et al, 2015;Akbar et al, 2016;Gossen et al, 2016;Schor and Fitzmaurice, 2015;Milanova and Maas, 2017;Böcker and Meelen, 2017); motivation for participation in community energy projects (Seyfang et al, 2013;Dóci and Vasileiadou, 2015;Bauwens, 2016;Holstenkamp and Kahla, 2016;Kalkbrenner and Roosen, 2016;Kaphengst and Velten, 2014;Gamel et al, 2016;Hicks and Ison, 2018;Volz, 2012;Boon and Dieperink, 2014); motivation for adoption of microgeneration technologies (Kairies et al, 2016;Balcombe et al, 2013Balcombe et al, , 2014Ruotsalainen et al, 2017;Shelly, 2014;Claudy et al, 2011;Wolske et al, 2017;Karakaya et al, 2015;Oberst and Madlener, 2014;Korcaj et al, 2015;Islam, 2014;Strupeit and Palm, 2016;Bergek and Mignon, 2017;Kastner and Matthies, 2016;Nygrén et al, 2015;Kowalska-Pyzalska, 2018;Michaels and Parag, 2016;Vasseur and Kemp, 2015;…”

A Review of Willingness to Pay Studies for Climate Change Mitigation in the Energy Sector

“…In Table 1 the summary of WTP for renewables studies is presented by identifying the main methods and models applied, targeting segments, technologies, sectors and countries. As can be seen from Table 1, the majority of scientists preferred CE or CVM methods in order to estimate consumers WTP, however only a few of them [59,62,65,86,88,97,98] investigated WTP for microgeneration technologies, i.e., renewable energy generation technologies-technologies that are installed in households. It can be linked to the fact the uptake of microgeneration technologies in most European countries remains low in general despite major policy and marketing efforts [99], which indicates home owners' WTP for microgeneration technologies "is significantly lower than actual market prices, posing a serious challenge for policy makers and marketers" [62].…”