Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung ISI

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  • Publication
    Energy efficiency and the direct and indirect effects of energy audits and implementation support programmes in Germany
    ( 2021)
    Schubert, Torben orcid-logo
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    Breitschopf, Barbara orcid-logo
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    Plötz, Patrick orcid-logo
    Energy audits help to increase energy efficiency in industry and have proven effective in many studies. Additional implementation support programmes providing financial incentives have been developed to not only support audits but also to overcome financial barriers to energy efficiency investments. Because the different types of programmes coexist, we argue that a precise analysis of their effects must explicitly model them together, demonstrating non-trivial direct and indirect effects of both audits and financial programmes on the adoption of energy efficiency measures. We corroborate the presence of these direct and indirect effects with data on German firms, all of which have participated in an energy audit programme and some of which have additionally received financial implementation support. Audits not only affect the adoption of energy efficiency measures directly, they also increase the likelihood of receiving financial implementation support, which in turn increases the adoption rate. Furthermore, our findings highlight that consultancy during implementation is an important factor for adoption. Accordingly, additional supporting policies should be considered in future energy audits, for example to ensure assistance during implementation.
  • Publication
    Poor energy ratings when appliances convey?
    ( 2020)
    Faure, Corinne
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    Schleich, Joachim orcid-logo
    Conveyance, i.e., leaving one's appliance in the dwelling when moving out, shortens the expected length of ownership of an appliance and may therefore lead to the purchase of less energy-efficient appliances. Employing a demo-graphically representative survey in Spain, this paper uses statistical-econometric analyses to explore the effects of conveyance on stated adoption of energy-efficient appliances (refrigerators or fridge-freezer combinations, freezers, dishwashers, and washing machines). The findings suggest that the take-up of energy-efficient appliances is on average about 8%-points lower when appliances convey. In addition, conveyance appears to have comparable effects for renters and homeowners. These findings therefore suggest that con-veyance contributes to explaining the energy efficiency paradox. Finally, the results appear robust to a series of robustness checks involving alternative as-sumptions about the distribution and data generating process, the specifications of the dependent variable, and the handling of missing values. They also provide insights for policy-making.
  • Publication
    Energy efficiency and demand response - two sides of the same coin?
    ( 2020)
    Wohlfarth, Katharina
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    Worrell, Ernst
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    Eichhammer, Wolfgang orcid-logo
    To accommodate the increasing share of intermittent renewable energy, options need to be evaluated to maintain a profitable, secure and sustainable energy supply. Besides energy efficiency (EE) as ""first fuel"", adapting demand to meet the variable supply needs to be evaluated. We focus on concepts of energy efficiency and load flexibility (further: demand response; DR) and compare the two types of measures with respect to the diffusion of actions taken and possible drivers and barriers affecting uptake, we derive recommendations to promote the measures more effectively and synergistically. We analyse the results of a survey of more than 1500 service sector companies in Germany and supplement the results with research on German policies promoting energy efficiency and how these could also promote DR. We use logistic regression models to assess and compare influencing factors. Energy efficiency measures are much more prevalent than demand response measures, while most of the influencing factors for both are comparable. More information and standardisation will be needed to tap the demand response potential. We assume that the successful instruments and policies for energy efficiency could also be applied to foster demand response. Especially, instruments such as Energy Efficiency Networks could be redesigned to include demand response. The same holds for other established, effective regulatory instruments like energy audits, which could be enhanced by adding demand response. Although energy efficiency and demand response measures might counteract in specific cases, promoting DR measures can to a large extent built synergistically on existing energy efficiency policy.
  • Publication
    The evolution of energy efficiency in Switzerland in the period 2000-2016
    ( 2020)
    Bhadbhade, Navdeep
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    Yilmaz, Selin
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    Zuberi, Jibran S.
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    Eichhammer, Wolfgang orcid-logo
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    Patel, Martin
    Substantial improvement in traditional energy intensity indicator (4.5% p.a.) for Switzerland in the period 2000 to 2016 points towards strong decoupling of economic growth and energy demand. Since the improved energy intensity could be primarily driven by soaring value added, it is necessary to analyse 1) physical energy efficiency (EE) representing the contribution of technical progress to EE improvement and 2) the influence of other drivers of total final energy (TFE) demand. This work evaluates physical energy efficiency (EE) trends in Switzerland at various aggregation levels by applying the ODYSSEE energy efficiency index (ODEX). The ODEX methodology facilitates the estimation of physical (technical) EE trends based on subsector-specific physical activity indicators. Switzerland improved its physical EE by 1.4% p.a. in the period 2000-2016 with household being the fastest and industry being the slowest improving sector. Physical EE improvement was enhanced by structural change but it was partly offset by larger dwellings, more appliances per dwelling and physical activity growth. Although the combined indicator identifies Switzerland as the third best amongst the countries in ODYSEE database, individual sectors in Switzerland still need to increase their rate of EE improvement in order to meet the 2050 targets of Swiss Energy Strategy 2050.
  • Publication
    A large-scale test of the effects of time discounting, risk aversion, loss aversion and present bias on household adoption of energy-efficient technologies
    ( 2019)
    Schleich, Joachim orcid-logo
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    Gassmann, Xavier
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    Meissner, Thomas
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    Faure, C.
    This paper empirically and jointly analyses the relations between risk aversion, standard time discounting, present bias, and loss aversion and household stated adoption of low to high stake energy efficiency technologies (EETs) (light emitting diodes (LEDs), energy efficient appliances, and retrofit measures). The analysis relies on a large representative sample drawn from eight European Union countries. Preferences over time, risk and losses were elicited and jointly estimated from participant choices in incentivized, context-free multiple price list experiments. The findings from econometrically estimating EET adoption equations suggest that present-biased individuals are less likely to adopt EETs. They also provide (weak) evidence that individuals which are more risk-averse, or more loss-averse, or which exhibit a lower discount factor are less likely to adopt EETs. Finally, omitting one or several of the time and risk or loss-aversion parameters when estimating the EET adoption equations did not appear to cause omitted variable bias.
  • Publication
    Energy efficient technology adoption in low-income households in the European Union - what is the evidence?
    ( 2019)
    Schleich, Joachim orcid-logo
    This paper studies the adoption of high-cost, medium-cost, and low-cost energy efficient technologies (EETs) by income categories in eight European Union countries, relying on demographically representative household surveys carried out simultaneously among about 15,000 households in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The statistical-econometric analyses allow the effects of income to differ by income quartiles in each country. For high cost EETs such as retrofit measures, the findings suggest that homeowners falling into the lowest income quartile exhibit lower adoption propensities than those falling into the highest income quartile. These findings provide some support for policies targeting ""poor homeowners"", particularly in lower-income countries with a high share of owner-occupiers such as Poland and Romania. Further, differences in adoption propensities across income quartiles also exist for medium- and low-cost EETs such as appliances and light bulbs. Finally, analyzing factors related to homeowners receiving financial support for retrofit measures from governments or utilities suggests that differences in implementation rates between the highest and lowest income quartile would likely have been higher without such support schemes in place. For the United Kingdom (but not for other countries) these schemes appeared to have had a progressive effect.
  • Publication
    Macroeconomic impact of the German energy transition and its distribution by sectors and regions
    ( 2019)
    Sievers, Luisa
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    Breitschopf, Barbara orcid-logo
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    Pfaff, Matthias
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    Schaffer, Axel
    Macroeconomic impacts such as changes in economic structures and employment are very important when evaluating the energy transition in societal terms. We employ a macroeconomic model that accounts for regional, economic and sectoral features. The model results show how the overall positive net impacts of the energy transition in Germany - energy efficiency and renewable energies - on economic growth and employment up to 2030 are distributed across sectors and regions. The biggest relative increases in value added occur in construction, real estate and electricity generation; the biggest decrease is in mining of lignite. Significant effects mainly result from changes in the heat and transport sectors, while the transition in the electricity sector entails smaller impacts. The latter are, however, relevant to the regional distribution: The model results suggest that especially northern and eastern German federal states will benefit economically from the energy transition because they offer attractive locations for investments. At the same time, these states are less affected by decreasing conventional energy generation. Moreover, the impact of rising electricity prices is less negative here than in the other federal states because of their lower electricity intensity in production. In summary, the energy transition represents an opportunity for these regions to strengthen their economies.
  • Publication
    Effectiveness of energy audits in small business organizations
    ( 2019)
    Schleich, Joachim orcid-logo
    ;
    Fleiter, Tobias
    Energy audits for business organizations have been promoted for more than four decades, but no evaluation based on the counterfactual behaviour of a comparable large control group has yet been carried out. Seeking to close this gap, this paper analyses the effect of a German energy audit programme involving more than 1400 small manufacturing and non-manufacturing organizations. The control group observations were drawn from a parallel study involving more than 2000 organizations. Limiting the sample to business organizations with at most 50 employees, the study employs coarsened exact matching, and-as a robustness check-conventional propensity scores as well as distance-based matching to estimate the effectiveness of simple and detailed audits on the adoption of four ancillary energy efficiency measures. The findings suggest that both types of audits spur the adoption of lighting, insulation, heating systems, and operational measures to improve heating systems (operations) by between 10 and 20 percentage points. Audit effectiveness was highest for insulation measures and operations. In addition, the findings suggest a positive but diminishing interaction between audit effectiveness and organization size for lighting, insulation and operations. These results are robust across alternative matching.
  • Publication
    Adoption of energy efficiency measures for non-residential buildings: Technological and organizational heterogeneity in the trade, commerce and services sector
    ( 2017)
    Olsthoorn, Mark
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    Schleich, Joachim orcid-logo
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    Hirzel, Simon orcid-logo
    Drawing on agency theory and absorptive capacity literature, this paper empirically analyzes factors of adoption and barriers to adoption of four crosscutting, ancillary energy efficiency measures (EEMs) for non-residential buildings (efficient lighting, building insulation, heating system replacement, and optimization of heating system operations). The empirical analysis employs a large representative sample of organizations in the German trade, commerce and services sector. Results from econometric analyses provide evidence for a negative effect of principal-agent relationships (landlord-tenant; owner-user of energy supply equipment; parent-subsidiary) and for a positive effect of organizational attributes that contribute to absorptive capacity (energy manager in place; energy audit conducted; experience with decentralized low carbon energy). However, the significance of these effects varies by measure. For non-adopters, heterogeneity of crosscutting ancillary EEMs has little impact on the ranking of barriers to adoption. The most relevant barriers for all EEMs are rented spaces, high investment costs, and other priorities; least relevant are technical risk to production and risk to product quality. Finally, we find little evidence for differences in the factors of adoption and barriers to adoption between manufacturing and non-manufacturing organizations. These findings are robust to alternative model specifications.
  • Publication
    Free riding and rebates for residential energy efficiency upgrades: A multi-country contingent valuation experiment
    ( 2017)
    Olsthoorn, Mark
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    Schleich, Joachim orcid-logo
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    Gassmann, Xavier
    ;
    Faure, Corinne
    The cost-effectiveness of energy technology upgrade programs critically depends on free riding. This paper assesses ex ante the effects of free riding on the cost-effectiveness of a rebate program that promotes the adoption of energy-efficient heating systems, relying on contingent valuation choice experiments carried out through identical representative surveys in eight EU Members States. The analysis distinguishes between strong and weak free riders: strong free riders already plan to adopt a new heating system in the next five years; weak free riders decide to purchase once propositioned with an attractive technology package (and therefore do not require a rebate to adopt). The reservation rebates for incentivized adopters (those who decide to adopt because of a rebate) differ substantially across countries. On average, they amount to approximately 40% of the heating system's purchasing price, suggesting generally high opportunity costs for premature upgrades. The reservation rebate and weak free-ridership vary with income, risk and time preferences, and environmental identity. At a rebate level that corresponds to half the purchase price of the offered heating system, the estimated share of free riders exceeded 50% for most countries, with a typically higher share of weak free riders than strong free riders. Specific rebate cost estimates (in e/tCO2) differ considerably across countries, suggesting that cooperation can yield budgetary benefits.