Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung ISI

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  • Publication
    Discriminatory subsidies for energy-efficient technologies and the role of envy
    ( 2022)
    Fanghella, Valeria
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    Faure, Corinne
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    Guetlein, Marie-Charlotte
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    Schleich, Joachim orcid-logo
    Discriminatory subsidies, that is, subsidies for which only a subset of the population is eligible, are widespread. However, research on social preferences suggests that non-eligible households may negatively respond to these subsidies. We investigate both eligible and non-eligible households' response to discriminatory subsidies for smart thermostats using a discrete choice experiment with 3071 owner-occupiers from France and Romania. Households are randomly exposed to discriminatory subsidies through a between-subject design that manipulates two factors: type of discrimination (positive or negative) and eligibility criteria (based on geographical location or on household characteristics). A control condition (uniform subsidy) is also included. In addition, we elicit envy via an incentivized game in the sample from France. Our results show that eligible households are more likely to adopt a smart thermostat, regardless of whether the subsidy is uniform or discriminatory. By contrast, non-eligible households are less likely to adopt it, especially when eligibility criteria are based on household characteristics. We find no evidence for a moderating effect of envy.
  • Publication
    Adoption of retrofit measures among homeowners in EU countries: The effects of access to capital and debt aversion
    ( 2021)
    Schleich, Joachim orcid-logo
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    Faure, Corinne
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    Meissner, Thomas
    Energy efficiency policies often involve low-interest loans for retrofit measures in private buildings; the main target of these loans are meant to be households with otherwise poor access to capital. However, such programs can only be successful if the targeted households also take up these loans. This paper studies the relation between access to capital and debt aversion and the adoption of retrofit measures in European Union countries, employing a demographically representative household survey including about 6600 homeowners in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The findings suggest that debt aversion negatively affects the adoption of retrofit measures by homeowners. In particular, debt-averse homeowners with poor access to capital are less likely to have adopted retrofit measures than non-debt-averse homeowners with poor access to capital. The findings further provide evidence that low-interest loan programs should be targeted at younger homeowners with lower income and less formal education.
  • Publication
    How effective are EU minimum energy performance standards and energy labels for cold appliances?
    ( 2021)
    Schleich, Joachim orcid-logo
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    Durand, Antoine orcid-logo
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    Brugger, Heike orcid-logo
    In most countries, minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) and energy labels are the key policies to accelerate the diffusion of energy-efficient appliances and to help meet energy efficiency and climate policy targets. This paper estimates country-specific multivariate econometric models for eight EU countries over the period of 2007 to 2017 to evaluate the combined effects of changes in the MEPS and the energy labels entering into force in the EU in 2010 and 2011. The findings suggest that these policies increased the market share of cold appliances (refrigerators and fridge-freezer combinations) with an energy label of A+ and better between about 15 and 38 percentage points. For these appliances, autonomous developments (captured through a time trend) are estimated to range between 5 and 10 percentage points per year. Thus, failure to account for autonomous developments would have resulted in substantially overestimating the combined effects of MEPS and energy label policies in the EU. The findings further imply that policy evaluations should allow for policy effectiveness and autonomous developments to differ across countries.
  • Publication
    Effects of rescaling the EU energy label on household preferences for top-rated appliances
    ( 2021)
    Faure, Corinne
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    Guetlein, Marie-Charlotte
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    Schleich, Joachim orcid-logo
    The European Union has decided to replace its previously existing A+++ to D labelling scheme for cold appliances with a rescaled A to G labelling scheme in 2021. Employing a demographically representative discrete choice experiment on refrigerator adoption using an online survey among more than 1000 households in Germany, this paper explores the effects of the rescaled scheme compared to the previous scheme on the stated uptake of top-rated refrigerators, i.e. those classified A+++ under the previous scheme and B under the rescaled scheme. Since in practice both schemes may be shown for a transitory period, the paper also explores the effects of displaying both labels simultaneously. The findings from estimating a mixed logit model suggest that showing the rescaled label alone significantly increases valuation of top-rated refrigerators compared to showing the previous A+++ to D label alone. In comparison, when the previous A+++ to D and the rescaled A to G schemes are shown simultaneously, no benefits of introducing the rescaled label are found. Thus, policymakers should strive to enforce the application of the rescaled labelling scheme as quickly as possible and to shorten transitory periods where both labels are shown simultaneously.
  • Publication
    Energy Efficiency Vision 2050: How will new societal trends influence future energy demand in the European countries?
    ( 2021)
    Brugger, Heike orcid-logo
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    Eichhammer, Wolfgang orcid-logo
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    Mikova, Nadezhda
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    Dönitz, Ewa
    New societal trends are unfolding, such as digitalization, sharing economy and consumer awareness. They will highly influence future energy demand and, depending on their realization, enhance or counteract projected energy efficiency gains. Therefore, these trends have to be accompanied by policies with a strong focus on reducing energy demand (including Energy Efficiency First). This work analyzes quantitatively for all sectors how New Societal Trends interact with energy efficiency (policies). An extensive consultation with European experts identified 12 new societal trends that are likely to shape future energy demand. Based on these, four energy demand scenarios were developed for 2050. Using literature review and expert consultations, the impacts on all sectors were evaluated taking these trends explicitly into account. The results show that New Societal Trends can have a crucial impact on future energy demand beyond mere techno-economic potentials. In the best case scenario, ""New Trends Efficient"", they can reduce final energy demand by 67% compared to the EU ""Baseline"" scenario in 2050. While in the ""Worst Case"" scenario, they could increase final energy demand by 40%. This paper opens up the discussion on how New Societal Trends will shape future energy demand and emphasizes the crucial role of policy-making therein.
  • Publication
    Would you prefer to rent rather than own your new heating system? Insights from a discrete choice experiment among owner-occupiers in the UK
    ( 2021)
    Schleich, Joachim orcid-logo
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    Tu, Gengyang
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    Faure, Corinne
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    Guetlein, Marie-Charlotte
    By offering to rent energy technologies, energy suppliers and other companies may tap into new market segments, allowing them to preserve or increase market shares. Because such rental services can help overcome capital-related and other barriers to energy efficiency, they may also contribute to achieving ambitious energy and climate targets. Yet, empirical analyses of renting energy technologies are scarce. Employing a large-scale discrete choice experiment among owner-occupiers in the United Kingdom, this study explores households' willingness-to-pay for renting compared to owning their new heating system. The findings obtained from mixed logit models suggest that, on average, participants strongly dislike renting compared to owning their new heating system, in particular owner-occupiers who are older than 70 years. However, about a third of the sample is estimated to prefer renting. On average, participants also value heating cost savings associated with energy efficient heating systems and longer warranty periods. Finally, the paper discusses implications for policymakers and for providers of heating system rental services.
  • 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
    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
    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.