Renewable gases in the heating market: Identifying consumer preferences through a Discrete Choice Experiment

Abstract

Renewable gases like biomethane or Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) can play an important role in short-to mid-term decarbonization of the residential heating sector. By (partially) replacing the dominant natural gas, they accomplish two major goals: lowering CO2 emissions and lessening import dependencies. While existing research points to great production potential and technical options for producing renewable gases, the demand side has largely been neglected. Yet consumer decision making is highly relevant for climate change mitigation. Against this backdrop, we conducted a Discrete Choice Experiment with 512 heating consumers in Germany, a country with a high dependency on natural gas. We decomposed the gas tariff into six attributes (share of renewable gas, labels, regionality, biomethane feedstock, supplier type, and price) with varying attribute levels.We identified knowledge gaps regarding both biomethane and SNG technologies, gaps which are more pronounced for SNG. Results show that the gas mix and the price are key in consumer evaluations. Labels and feedstock are less relevant, regionality and supplier type almost neglectable. Biomethane is clearly favored over SNG, which comes as a surprise given the past controversy over food vs. fuel. Our results call for raising consumer awareness and standardizing information in order to improve decision-making.