IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v180y2023ics0301421523002689.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Which (co-)ownership types in renewables are associated with the willingness to adopt energy-efficient technologies and energy-conscious behaviour? Data from German households

Author

Listed:
  • Roth, Lucas
  • Lowitzsch, Jens
  • Yildiz, Özgür

Abstract

Emission reduction in the energy sector is built on two main pillars: a shift from fossil fuels to renewable sources and using available energy more efficiently. While renewable electricity production experienced a substantial acceleration in capacity building in the past ten years, energy demand - despite longstanding policy efforts – is still constantly on the rise worldwide. This paper combines both aspects analysing whether different (co-)ownership types in renewables in the residential sector are associated with an increased inclination to invest in energy-efficient appliances or to behave more energy consciously. To do so, we estimate an analysis of covariance using a sample with demographic and electricity consumption data from 1454 German households. Our results show that, in general, (co-)owners of renewable energy installations are more willing to invest in energy-efficient technologies than people who are not involved with renewables. However, there are differences between (co-)ownership types. People who have the choice between self-consumption and sale to third parties or the grid, i.e., fully-fledged prosumers, show the strongest inclination to invest in energy efficiency. Further, when analysing energy savings through adapted behaviour, solely this (co-)ownership group shows an increased propensity for conscious energy consumption behaviour.

Suggested Citation

  • Roth, Lucas & Lowitzsch, Jens & Yildiz, Özgür, 2023. "Which (co-)ownership types in renewables are associated with the willingness to adopt energy-efficient technologies and energy-conscious behaviour? Data from German households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:180:y:2023:i:c:s0301421523002689
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2023.113683
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421523002689
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2023.113683?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. Keirstead, James, 2007. "Behavioural responses to photovoltaic systems in the UK domestic sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 4128-4141, August.
    2. Adil, Ali M. & Ko, Yekang, 2016. "Socio-technical evolution of Decentralized Energy Systems: A critical review and implications for urban planning and policy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1025-1037.
    3. Ding, Zhihua & Wang, Guangqiang & Liu, Zhenhua & Long, Ruyin, 2017. "Research on differences in the factors influencing the energy-saving behavior of urban and rural residents in China–A case study of Jiangsu Province," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 252-259.
    4. Frederiks, Elisha R. & Stenner, Karen & Hobman, Elizabeth V., 2015. "Household energy use: Applying behavioural economics to understand consumer decision-making and behaviour," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1385-1394.
    5. Jörg Radtke & Özgür Yildiz & Lucas Roth, 2022. "Does Energy Community Membership Change Sustainable Attitudes and Behavioral Patterns? Empirical Evidence from Community Wind Energy in Germany," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-17, January.
    6. Galvin, Ray & Dütschke, Elisabeth & Weiß, Julika, 2021. "A conceptual framework for understanding rebound effects with renewable electricity: A new challenge for decarbonizing the electricity sector," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 423-432.
    7. Hargreaves, Tom & Nye, Michael & Burgess, Jacquelin, 2013. "Keeping energy visible? Exploring how householders interact with feedback from smart energy monitors in the longer term," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 126-134.
    8. Wang, Shubin & Sun, Shaolong & Zhao, Erlong & Wang, Shouyang, 2021. "Urban and rural differences with regional assessment of household energy consumption in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    9. Thomas Hoppe & Frans H. J. M. Coenen & Maria T. Bekendam, 2019. "Renewable Energy Cooperatives as a Stimulating Factor in Household Energy Savings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-33, March.
    10. Munankarmi, Prateek & Maguire, Jeff & Balamurugan, Sivasathya Pradha & Blonsky, Michael & Roberts, David & Jin, Xin, 2021. "Community-scale interaction of energy efficiency and demand flexibility in residential buildings," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    11. Kenneth Gillingham & David Rapson & Gernot Wagner, 2016. "The Rebound Effect and Energy Efficiency Policy," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 10(1), pages 68-88.
    12. Havas, Lisa & Ballweg, Julie & Penna, Chris & Race, Digby, 2015. "Power to change: Analysis of household participation in a renewable energy and energy efficiency programme in Central Australia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 325-333.
    13. Nygrén, Nina A. & Kontio, Panu & Lyytimäki, Jari & Varho, Vilja & Tapio, Petri, 2015. "Early adopters boosting the diffusion of sustainable small-scale energy solutions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 79-87.
    14. Rosenow, Jan & Guertler, Pedro & Sorrell, Steven & Eyre, Nick, 2018. "The remaining potential for energy savings in UK households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 542-552.
    15. McAndrew, Ryan & Mulcahy, Rory & Gordon, Ross & Russell-Bennett, Rebekah, 2021. "Household energy efficiency interventions: A systematic literature review," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    16. Bauwens, Thomas & Eyre, Nick, 2017. "Exploring the links between community-based governance and sustainable energy use: Quantitative evidence from Flanders," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 163-172.
    17. Wallis, Hannah & Nachreiner, Malte & Matthies, Ellen, 2016. "Adolescents and electricity consumption; Investigating sociodemographic, economic, and behavioural influences on electricity consumption in households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 224-234.
    18. Gwowen Shieh, 2020. "Power Analysis and Sample Size Planning in ANCOVA Designs," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 85(1), pages 101-120, March.
    19. Kubli, Merla & Loock, Moritz & Wüstenhagen, Rolf, 2018. "The flexible prosumer: Measuring the willingness to co-create distributed flexibility," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 540-548.
    20. Lucas Roth & Jens Lowitzsch & Özgür Yildiz, 2021. "An Empirical Study of How Household Energy Consumption Is Affected by Co-Owning Different Technological Means to Produce Renewable Energy and the Production Purpose," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-38, July.
    21. Bauwens, Thomas, 2019. "Analyzing the determinants of the size of investments by community renewable energy members: Findings and policy implications from Flanders," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 841-852.
    22. Konietschke, Frank & Bathke, Arne C. & Harrar, Solomon W. & Pauly, Markus, 2015. "Parametric and nonparametric bootstrap methods for general MANOVA," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 291-301.
    23. Wei, Taoyuan & Liu, Yang, 2017. "Estimation of global rebound effect caused by energy efficiency improvement," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 27-34.
    24. Herring, Horace, 2006. "Energy efficiency—a critical view," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 10-20.
    25. Cayla, Jean-Michel & Maizi, Nadia & Marchand, Christophe, 2011. "The role of income in energy consumption behaviour: Evidence from French households data," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 7874-7883.
    26. Ramos, A. & Gago, A. & Labandeira, X. & Linares, P., 2015. "The role of information for energy efficiency in the residential sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(S1), pages 17-29.
    27. Belaïd, Fateh & Youssef, Adel Ben & Lazaric, Nathalie, 2020. "Scrutinizing the direct rebound effect for French households using quantile regression and data from an original survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    28. Özgür Yildiz & Julian Sagebiel, 2019. "Consumer (Co-)Ownership and Behaviour: Economic Experiments as a Tool for Analysis," Springer Books, in: Jens Lowitzsch (ed.), Energy Transition, chapter 5, pages 99-112, Springer.
    29. Lee Cronbach, 1951. "Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 16(3), pages 297-334, September.
    30. Tjørring, Lise & Jensen, Carsten Lynge & Hansen, Lars Gårn & Andersen, Laura Mørch, 2018. "Increasing the flexibility of electricity consumption in private households: Does gender matter?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 9-18.
    31. Krishnamoorthy, K. & Lu, Fei & Mathew, Thomas, 2007. "A parametric bootstrap approach for ANOVA with unequal variances: Fixed and random models," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 51(12), pages 5731-5742, August.
    32. Bardazzi, Rossella & Pazienza, Maria Grazia, 2017. "Switch off the light, please! Energy use, aging population and consumption habits," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 161-171.
    33. Tagliapietra, Simone & Zachmann, Georg & Edenhofer, Ottmar & Glachant, Jean-Michel & Linares, Pedro & Loeschel, Andreas, 2019. "The European union energy transition: Key priorities for the next five years," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 950-954.
    34. Wittmann, Nadine & Yildiz, Özgür, 2013. "A microeconomic analysis of decentralized small scale biomass based CHP plants—The case of Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 123-129.
    35. Dharam GHAI, 2003. "Decent work: Concept and indicators," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 142(2), pages 113-145, June.
    36. Sanya Carley & David M. Konisky, 2020. "The justice and equity implications of the clean energy transition," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 5(8), pages 569-577, August.
    37. Dlamini, Ndumiso G. & Cromieres, Fabien, 2012. "Implementing peak load reduction algorithms for household electrical appliances," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 280-290.
    38. Bauwens, Thomas & Schraven, Daan & Drewing, Emily & Radtke, Jörg & Holstenkamp, Lars & Gotchev, Boris & Yildiz, Özgür, 2022. "Conceptualizing community in energy systems: A systematic review of 183 definitions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Sylwia Słupik & Joanna Kos-Łabędowicz & Joanna Trzęsiok, 2021. "How to Encourage Energy Savings Behaviours? The Most Effective Incentives from the Perspective of European Consumers," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-25, November.
    2. Sylwia Słupik & Joanna Kos-Łabędowicz & Joanna Trzęsiok, 2021. "Energy-Related Behaviour of Consumers from the Silesia Province (Poland)—Towards a Low-Carbon Economy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-23, April.
    3. Lucas Roth & Özgür Yildiz & Jens Lowitzsch, 2021. "An Empirical Approach to Differences in Flexible Electricity Consumption Behaviour of Urban and Rural Populations—Lessons Learned in Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-31, August.
    4. Kubli, Merla & Puranik, Sanket, 2023. "A typology of business models for energy communities: Current and emerging design options," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    5. Lucas Roth & Jens Lowitzsch & Özgür Yildiz, 2021. "An Empirical Study of How Household Energy Consumption Is Affected by Co-Owning Different Technological Means to Produce Renewable Energy and the Production Purpose," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-38, July.
    6. Tampakis, Stilianos & Arabatzis, Garyfallos & Tsantopoulos, Georgios & Rerras, Ioannis, 2017. "Citizens’ views on electricity use, savings and production from renewable energy sources: A case study from a Greek island," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 39-49.
    7. Labandeira, Xavier & Labeaga, José M. & Linares, Pedro & López-Otero, Xiral, 2020. "The impacts of energy efficiency policies: Meta-analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    8. Peñasco, Cristina & Anadón, Laura Díaz, 2023. "Assessing the effectiveness of energy efficiency measures in the residential sector gas consumption through dynamic treatment effects: Evidence from England and Wales," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    9. Fattahi, A. & Sijm, J. & Faaij, A., 2020. "A systemic approach to analyze integrated energy system modeling tools: A review of national models," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    10. Chris Foulds & Sarah Royston & Thomas Berker & Efi Nakopoulou & Zareen Pervez Bharucha & Rosie Robison & Simone Abram & Branko Ančić & Stathis Arapostathis & Gabriel Badescu & Richard Bull & Jed Cohen, 2022. "An agenda for future Social Sciences and Humanities research on energy efficiency: 100 priority research questions," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-18, December.
    11. Lemoine, Derek, 2020. "General equilibrium rebound from energy efficiency innovation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    12. Guo, Jingyu & Mallinson, Daniel J. & Ortiz, Selena E. & Domenica Iulo, Lisa, 2024. "Collaborative governance challenges in energy efficiency and conservation: The case of Pennsylvania," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    13. Yang, Aoxi & Wang, Yahui, 2023. "Transition of household cooking energy in China since the 1980s," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    14. Lode, M.L. & te Boveldt, G. & Coosemans, T. & Ramirez Camargo, L., 2022. "A transition perspective on Energy Communities: A systematic literature review and research agenda," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    15. Ahmann, Lara & Banning, Maximilian & Lutz, Christian, 2022. "Modeling rebound effects and counteracting policies for German industries," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    16. Chen, Zhongfei & Huang, Wanjing & Zheng, Xian, 2019. "The decline in energy intensity: Does financial development matter?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    17. Kendel, Adnane & Lazaric, Nathalie & Maréchal, Kevin, 2017. "What do people ‘learn by looking’ at direct feedback on their energy consumption? Results of a field study in Southern France," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 593-605.
    18. H. V. Kulkarni & S. M. Patil, 2021. "Uniformly implementable small sample integrated likelihood ratio test for one-way and two-way ANOVA under heteroscedasticity and normality," AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis, Springer;German Statistical Society, vol. 105(2), pages 273-305, June.
    19. Linn, Joshua & Liang, Jing & Qiu, Yueming, 2022. "Rising US Income Inequality and Declining Residential Electricity Consumption: Is There a Link?," RFF Working Paper Series 22-09, Resources for the Future.
    20. Loureiro, Maria & Labandeira, Xavier, 2019. "Exploring Energy Use in Retail Stores: A Field Experiment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(S1).

    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:enepol:v:180:y:2023:i:c:s0301421523002689. 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/enpol .

    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.