IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v83y2019icp567-577.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Q-complementarity in household adoption of photovoltaics and electricity-intensive goods: The case of electric vehicles

Author

Listed:
  • Cohen, Jed
  • Azarova, Valeriya
  • Kollmann, Andrea
  • Reichl, Johannes

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) units and electric vehicles (EVs) are two household goods that are the focus of much research, and many policy initiatives attempting to promote a more sustainable, low-carbon energy system. Despite both academic and practical interest in household adoption of PV units and EVs, potential linkages in these household decisions have only just begun to be explored. This paper presents q-complementarity between the goods as one possible form of a linkage between PV and EV purchases that is based on economic utility theory. We posit the goods could be q-complements due to a PV-owning household's ability to offset and shift their electricity load from EV charging to increase the self-consumption of ‘home-made’ electricity, thereby increasing the positive feelings of environmental efficacy and monetary returns from the PV unit. We use data from 2541 internet surveys of Austrian residential electricity customers collected in 2018 to explore these hypotheses. Probit models of household EV and PV adoption choice are estimated, including a recursive bivariate probit model of households who plan to purchase an EV in the future, with PV ownership endogenously determined. Controlling for household income, characteristics, environmental attitudes, and neighborhood characteristics, we find that EV and PV adoption are positively correlated, and that current PV unit owners are 21% more likely to plan an EV purchase in the next 5 years compared to non-PV owners. We interpret these results as evidence in support of our hypothesis of q-complementarity between PV units and EVs, and note the potential for added benefits from incentive policies promoting adoption of one good or the other that this linkage suggests.

Suggested Citation

  • Cohen, Jed & Azarova, Valeriya & Kollmann, Andrea & Reichl, Johannes, 2019. "Q-complementarity in household adoption of photovoltaics and electricity-intensive goods: The case of electric vehicles," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 567-577.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:83:y:2019:i:c:p:567-577
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2019.08.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014098831930252X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2019.08.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mourifié, Ismael & Méango, Romuald, 2014. "A note on the identification in two equations probit model with dummy endogenous regressor," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 125(3), pages 360-363.
    2. Keirstead, James, 2007. "Behavioural responses to photovoltaic systems in the UK domestic sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 4128-4141, August.
    3. Egbue, Ona & Long, Suzanna, 2012. "Barriers to widespread adoption of electric vehicles: An analysis of consumer attitudes and perceptions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 717-729.
    4. Filippini, Massimo & Greene, William H. & Kumar, Nilkanth & Martinez-Cruz, Adan L., 2018. "A note on the different interpretation of the correlation parameters in the Bivariate Probit and the Recursive Bivariate Probit," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 104-107.
    5. Rommel, Jens & Sagebiel, Julian & Müller, Jakob R., 2016. "Quality uncertainty and the market for renewable energy: Evidence from German consumers," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 106-113.
    6. Delmas, Magali A. & Kahn, Matthew E. & Locke, Stephen L., 2017. "The private and social consequences of purchasing an electric vehicle and solar panels: Evidence from California," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 225-235.
    7. Kenneth E. Train & Clifford Winston, 2007. "Vehicle Choice Behavior And The Declining Market Share Of U.S. Automakers," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 48(4), pages 1469-1496, November.
    8. Nolan, Anne, 2010. "A dynamic analysis of household car ownership," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 446-455, July.
    9. Berry, Steven & Haile, Philip & Israel, Mark & Katz, Michael, 2017. "Complementarity without superadditivity," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 28-30.
    10. Parsons, George R. & Hidrue, Michael K. & Kempton, Willett & Gardner, Meryl P., 2014. "Willingness to pay for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) electric vehicles and their contract terms," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 313-324.
    11. Wittenberg, Inga & Matthies, Ellen, 2018. "How do PV households use their PV system and how is this related to their energy use?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 291-300.
    12. Beckman, Jayson & Xiarchos, Irene M., 2013. "Why are Californian farmers adopting more (and larger) renewable energy operations?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 322-330.
    13. Klingler, Anna-Lena, 2018. "The effect of electric vehicles and heat pumps on the market potential of PV + battery systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 1064-1073.
    14. Kalkbrenner, Bernhard J. & Yonezawa, Koichi & Roosen, Jutta, 2017. "Consumer preferences for electricity tariffs: Does proximity matter?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 413-424.
    15. Hondo, Hiroki & Baba, Kenshi, 2010. "Socio-psychological impacts of the introduction of energy technologies: Change in environmental behavior of households with photovoltaic systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 229-235, January.
    16. Rommel, Kai & Sagebiel, Julian, 2017. "Preferences for micro-cogeneration in Germany: Policy implications for grid expansion from a discrete choice experiment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 612-622.
    17. Krasko, Vitaliy A. & Doris, Elizabeth, 2013. "State distributed PV policies: Can low cost (to government) policies have a market impact?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 172-181.
    18. Hoarau, Quentin & Perez, Yannick, 2018. "Interactions between electric mobility and photovoltaic generation: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 510-522.
    19. Hidrue, Michael K. & Parsons, George R. & Kempton, Willett & Gardner, Meryl P., 2011. "Willingness to pay for electric vehicles and their attributes," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 686-705, September.
    20. Crago, Christine Lasco & Chernyakhovskiy, Ilya, 2017. "Are policy incentives for solar power effective? Evidence from residential installations in the Northeast," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 132-151.
    21. Maddala,G. S., 1986. "Limited-Dependent and Qualitative Variables in Econometrics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521338257, September.
    22. Noel, Lance & Papu Carrone, Andrea & Jensen, Anders Fjendbo & Zarazua de Rubens, Gerardo & Kester, Johannes & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2019. "Willingness to pay for electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid applications: A Nordic choice experiment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 525-534.
    23. Sierzchula, William & Bakker, Sjoerd & Maat, Kees & van Wee, Bert, 2014. "The influence of financial incentives and other socio-economic factors on electric vehicle adoption," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 183-194.
    24. Makena Coffman & Paul Bernstein & Sherilyn Wee, 2017. "Electric vehicles revisited: a review of factors that affect adoption," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(1), pages 79-93, January.
    25. Biresselioglu, Mehmet Efe & Demirbag Kaplan, Melike & Yilmaz, Barbara Katharina, 2018. "Electric mobility in Europe: A comprehensive review of motivators and barriers in decision making processes," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 1-13.
    26. Noll, Daniel & Dawes, Colleen & Rai, Varun, 2014. "Solar Community Organizations and active peer effects in the adoption of residential PV," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 330-343.
    27. Mills, Bradford F. & Schleich, Joachim, 2009. "Profits or preferences? Assessing the adoption of residential solar thermal technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 4145-4154, October.
    28. Han, Sukjin & Vytlacil, Edward J., 2017. "Identification in a generalization of bivariate probit models with dummy endogenous regressors," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 199(1), pages 63-73.
    29. Schuitema, Geertje & Anable, Jillian & Skippon, Stephen & Kinnear, Neale, 2013. "The role of instrumental, hedonic and symbolic attributes in the intention to adopt electric vehicles," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 39-49.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Austmann, Leonhard M. & Vigne, Samuel A., 2021. "Does environmental awareness fuel the electric vehicle market? A Twitter keyword analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    2. Tang, Songlin & Zhou, Wenbing & Li, Xinjin & Chen, Yingchao & Zhang, Qian & Zhang, Xiliang, 2021. "Subsidy strategy for distributed photovoltaics: A combined view of cost change and economic development," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    3. Outcault, Sarah & Sanguinetti, Angela & Nelson, Leslie, 2022. "Technology characteristics that influence adoption of residential distributed energy resources: Adapting Rogers’ framework," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    4. Natter, Jan Philipp, 2023. "Enabling E-Mobility: How Electric Grids Can Support High EV Adoption with Residential PV and Battery Energy Storage Systems," Junior Management Science (JUMS), Junior Management Science e. V., vol. 8(4), pages 1040-1080.
    5. Sharda, S. & Garikapati, V.M. & Goulias, K.G. & Reyna, J.L. & Sun, B. & Spurlock, C.A. & Needell, Z., 2024. "The electric vehicles-solar photovoltaics Nexus: Driving cross-sectoral adoption of sustainable technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Philip, Thara & Whitehead, Jake & Prato, Carlo G., 2023. "Adoption of electric vehicles in a laggard, car-dependent nation: Investigating the potential influence of V2G and broader energy benefits on adoption," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    2. Elena Higueras-Castillo & Sebastian Molinillo & J. Andres Coca-Stefaniak & Francisco Liébana-Cabanillas, 2020. "Potential Early Adopters of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles in Spain—Towards a Customer Profile," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-18, May.
    3. Cohen, Jed J. & Azarova, Valeriya & Kollmann, Andrea & Reichl, Johannes, 2021. "Preferences for community renewable energy investments in Europe," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    4. Silvia Tomasi & Alyona Zubaryeva & Cesare Pizzirani & Margherita Dal Col & Jessica Balest, 2021. "Propensity to Choose Electric Vehicles in Cross-Border Alpine Regions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-20, April.
    5. Yang, Shu & Cheng, Peng & Li, Jun & Wang, Shanyong, 2019. "Which group should policies target? Effects of incentive policies and product cognitions for electric vehicle adoption among Chinese consumers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    6. Herberz, Mario & Hahnel, Ulf J.J. & Brosch, Tobias, 2020. "The importance of consumer motives for green mobility: A multi-modal perspective," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 102-118.
    7. Bhat, Furqan A. & Verma, Ashish, 2024. "Electric two-wheeler adoption in India – A discrete choice analysis of motivators and barriers affecting the potential electric two-wheeler buyers," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 118-131.
    8. Peng, Ruoqing & Tang, Justin Hayse Chiwing G. & Yang, Xiong & Meng, Meng & Zhang, Jie & Zhuge, Chengxiang, 2024. "Investigating the factors influencing the electric vehicle market share: A comparative study of the European Union and United States," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 355(C).
    9. Goel, Pooja & Kumar, Aalok & Parayitam, Satyanarayana & Luthra, Sunil, 2023. "Understanding transport users' preferences for adopting electric vehicle based mobility for sustainable city: A moderated moderated-mediation model," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    10. Lin, Boqiang & Tan, Ruipeng, 2017. "Estimation of the environmental values of electric vehicles in Chinese cities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 221-229.
    11. Seung Jun Choi & Junfeng Jiao, 2024. "Uncovering electric vehicle ownership disparities using K-means clustering analysis: A case study of Austin, Texas," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 2403-2456, December.
    12. Jingnan Zhang & Shichun Xu & Zhengxia He & Chengze Li & Xiaona Meng, 2022. "Factors Influencing Adoption Intention for Electric Vehicles under a Subsidy Deduction: From Different City-Level Perspectives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-24, May.
    13. Bansal, Prateek & Kumar, Rajeev Ranjan & Raj, Alok & Dubey, Subodh & Graham, Daniel J., 2021. "Willingness to pay and attitudinal preferences of Indian consumers for electric vehicles," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    14. Hardman, Scott & Shiu, Eric & Steinberger-Wilckens, Robert, 2016. "Comparing high-end and low-end early adopters of battery electric vehicles," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 40-57.
    15. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Abrahamse, Wokje & Zhang, Long & Ren, Jingzheng, 2019. "Pleasure or profit? Surveying the purchasing intentions of potential electric vehicle adopters in China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 69-81.
    16. Moon-Koo Kim & Jong-Hyun Park & Kyungsoo Kim & Byoungkyu Park, 2020. "Identifying factors influencing the slow market diffusion of electric vehicles in Korea," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 663-688, April.
    17. Mukherjee, Sanghamitra Chattopadhyay & Ryan, Lisa, 2020. "Factors influencing early battery electric vehicle adoption in Ireland," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    18. Javid, Roxana J. & Nejat, Ali, 2017. "A comprehensive model of regional electric vehicle adoption and penetration," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 30-42.
    19. Brückmann, Gracia, 2022. "The effects of policies providing information and trialling on the knowledge about and the intention to adopt new energy technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    20. Wang, Ning & Tang, Linhao & Pan, Huizhong, 2018. "Analysis of public acceptance of electric vehicles: An empirical study in Shanghai," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 284-291.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    PV adoption; Photovoltaic; Solar adoption; Electric vehicle adoption; q-complements; Household choice; Recursive bivariate probit model;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General
    • Q20 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - General
    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:83:y:2019:i:c:p:567-577. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.