Abstract
In South Korea, renewable energy policy is mainly focused on electricity and tends to neglect renewable heat (RH). However, for the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the heating sector must sharply switch from its use of conventional fuels to renewable sources. The South Korean Government is considering an RH incentive (RHI) program with financial and policy support schemes and is thus demanding information about residential consumers’ acceptance of the RHI program to expand the use of RH. Therefore, this study looked into residential consumers’ acceptance of the introduction of the RHI program by applying contingent valuation (CV). For this purpose, a CV survey of 600 interviewees was conducted using a dichotomous choice question format that asked a respondent if she/he is willing to pay a given amount. Furthermore, among the various dichotomous choice question formats, the one-and-one-half-bounded format, which is considered desirable in terms of efficiency as well as consistency, was applied. One point to note in analyzing the CV responses was that not a few interviewees had zero willingness to pay (WTP). Thus, a spike model was employed to deal with the dichotomous choice CV data with a number of zero observations. The results revealed that the household mean WTP amounted to KRW 5753 (USD 5.35) per year. If we look at this value from a national perspective, it is worth KRW 113.63 billion (USD 105.61 million) per year. This value corresponds to the economic value or benefits that the introduction of an RHI program provides to the South Korean people each year and needs to be compared to the costs that the introduction of RHI will incur.
Highlights
Heating, as the largest part of energy consumption by the end-user, greatly contributes to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
In South Korea, renewable energy policy is mainly focused on electricity while neglecting renewable heat (RH)
By multiplying this value by KRW 5753 (USD 5.35) per household, which was obtained in this study, we obtained a nationwide value of KRW 113.63 billion (USD 105.61 million) per year. This value corresponds to the economic value or benefits that the introduction of the RH incentive (RHI) program provides to the South Korean people each year and needs to be compared to the costs that the introduction of the RHI program will incur
Summary
As the largest part of energy consumption by the end-user, greatly contributes to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Many countries that have high shares of renewables in heat supply have had active heat policies. In South Korea, renewable energy policy is mainly focused on electricity while neglecting renewable heat (RH). Heat accounts for over 52% of final energy uses globally [1], and over 30% of total energy consumption is used for different types of heat energy in. Heating and water heating account for 72% of total annual home energy consumption in South Korea [2]. According to the South Korean national roadmap for reducing GHG emissions, South Korea should cut GHG emissions by 37%, from 850 million to 536 million tCO2 by
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
