An Empirical Study of How Household Energy Consumption Is Affected by Co-Owning Different Technological Means to Produce Renewable Energy and the Production Purpose

Lucas Roth,Jens Lowitzsch,Özgür Yildiz

doi:10.3390/en14133996

Lucas Roth, Jens Lowitzsch + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/en14133996

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Abstract

The transition from fossil fuel-based to renewable energy sources is one of the main economic and social challenges of the early 21st century. Due to the volatile character of wind and solar power production, matching supply and demand is essential for this transition to be successful. In this context, the willingness of private consumers to use energy flexibly has gained growing attention. Research indicates that a viable driver to motivate consumers to be demand flexible is to make them (co-)owners of renewable energy production facilities. However, existing research has only analyzed this question from an aggregated perspective. This article analyses whether behavioral changes triggered by (co-)ownership in renewables differ according to the type of installation; be it solar, wind, or bioenergy. In addition, the prosumption options self-consumption/self-consumption and sale/sale are considered. To do so, we collected 2074 completed questionnaires on energy consumption that entered an econometric model using propensity score matching to control for estimation biases. We find significant differences in the willingness to consume electricity in a flexible manner for (co-)owners of solar installations. However, only the usage of household appliances proves to be statistically significant (p-value = 0.04). Furthermore, the results show that within the group of (co-)owners of solar installation, the choice between self-consumption and sale of the produced energy has a significant effect on the inclination to become demand flexible (p-value ≤ 0.001; p-value = 0.003).

Highlights

Producing energy from renewable sources has gained increasing support in Europe and throughout the world
The results section is structured according to hypotheses that compare (i) demand flexibility along the form of participation and subsequently (ii) demand flexibility within the group of consumers thatown PV installations along the usage possibilities of the produced energy
Throughout all dimensions, the results show that people whoown solar installations tend to be more demand flexible than people who are not involved with renewable energy (RE)

Summary

Introduction

Producing energy from renewable sources has gained increasing support in Europe and throughout the world. The authors of [1] predict that the largest share of capacity increase in the years to come will be shouldered by photovoltaic (PV) installations and wind turbines. In their market analysis and forecast from 2018 to 2023, PV and wind power alone will account for approximately 75 percent of growth in the renewable energy (RE) sector. A constant baseload from fossil energy sources can stabilize the grid system and mitigate critical events triggered by volatile renewable energy sources (vRES) that threaten to impair grid stability [2] This solution conflicts with the declared political aim of an ever-increasing market penetration of renewables in the European Union [3]. Given the latest political endorsement for PV and wind energy in major economies, both effects are expected to worsen if not controlled for as the share of vRES is on the rise in the foreseeable future [1]

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