scholarly journals Does Energy Poverty Affect Energy Efficiency Investment Decisions? First Evidence from a Stated Choice Experiment

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1698
Author(s):  
Dimitris Damigos ◽  
Christina Kaliampakou ◽  
Anastasios Balaskas ◽  
Lefkothea Papada

Energy poverty is a multidimensional and continuously growing societal problem, with political roots. In pursuit of mitigating the problem, the European Commission has adopted a bundle of policies, such as consumer protection measures, short-term financial interventions, motivations for energy efficiency (e.g., energy retrofits and replacement of old household appliance) and information campaigns, among others. There is no doubt, however, that increasing the income of vulnerable households would be the most preferred and effective option. Focusing on energy efficiency, a measure typically incorporated in the National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) of many Member States as a means to fight energy poverty, this paper aims to shed light on the need to gradually move towards more localized—not to say personalized—actions. In this direction, a labeled choice-based experiment is used, which involves a hypothetical selection between three alternative energy interventions, i.e., house retrofit, upgrading of heating system and upgrading of household electrical appliances. The research aims to integrate the preferences of households from the choice experiment with indicators of energy poverty and establish a connection between energy poverty and energy efficiency investment decisions. The results demonstrate that households’ preferences are affected by qualitative and quantitative aspects of energy vulnerability and sociodemographic characteristics. Furthermore, vulnerable households seem to be more prone to the so-called “discounting gap”, as previous studies also suggest. These findings are worrisome because, without tailor-made support, these households may never escape the vicious circle of energy poverty. To this end, the survey could provide useful information to policy-makers towards developing more robust policies of energy poverty alleviation.

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1009-1020
Author(s):  
Vasileios Ntouros ◽  
Marina Laskari ◽  
Magdalena Iordache-Platis ◽  
Margarita-Niki Assimakopoulos ◽  
Joanna romanowicz ◽  
...  

Abstract Students are often described as an under-reported and under-supported group of the population falling into energy poverty. Although the main drivers of energy poverty are well documented, up to this date little attention is given to housing tenure as a cause of energy poverty. This study aims to support the understanding of the motivations and barriers faced by property owners that rent accommodation to students for making energy efficiency improvements to their rented properties. With this understanding recommendations for alleviating energy poverty experienced by students living in the private rented sector can be formulated. The research conducted is based on qualitative methods; focus group discussions and interviews. Data were collected from almost 30 student landlords in seven EU countries between October 2017 and January 2018. Findings show that grants and financial incentives are key for the questioned proprietors to move to energy efficiency improvements of their property but bureaucracy burdens are a major barrier for moving forward with them. In addition, the need for stronger information campaigns on energy efficiency issues is revealed. Eventually, a number of financial, consumer protection, energy efficiency and informational measures for alleviating energy poverty experienced by students living in private rented accommodation are proposed.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ghislaine Lang

Building energy retrofits are popular targets of public incentive schemes to curb emissions. For an efficient allocation of resources, policy-makers are required to compare benefit estimates of avoided carbon emissions with reliable estimates of each intervention's associated implicit carbon price (i.e., the net social cost of reducing CO$_2$ emissions by one tonne). In this thesis, I use data for a unique portfolio of 548 multi-unit buildings to provide novel evidence on heterogeneous effects of alternative energy efficiency interventions on energy use and the implicit carbon price. My results confirm that frequently subsidized measures such as wall insulation and windows replacement achieve significant energy savings, yet turn out to be a relatively expensive strategy to abate CO$_2$. By contrast, findings for smart thermostats suggest that new technologies can achieve significant savings at a relatively low cost. Despite public incentive schemes and the expected private and pro-social benefits, the level of realized investments remains low, and a burgeoning literature proposes ex-ante information to guide owners' investment decisions. In this context, this thesis also includes a discrete choice experiment on a sample of 511 homeowners to estimate their valuation of alternative replacement heating appliances. Results show that homeowners' willingness to invest in energy efficiency goes beyond financial savings, and that choices are unaffected by ex-ante information on heating costs. By contrast, this thesis also includes a stated choice multiple price list applied to 406 tenants in order to estimate acceptability of rent increases in exchange for improved energy efficiency of the heating system. Findings show that tenants' average willingness to pay for energy efficiency is statistically and economically significant, and can be stimulated further with ex-ante information on heating costs. Information on CO$_2$ tax payments has no incremental effect.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olena Savchenko ◽  
◽  
Vasyl Zhelykh ◽  
Yurii Yurkevych ◽  
Khrystyna Kozak ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 562-564 ◽  
pp. 1772-1775
Author(s):  
Shakeel Akram ◽  
Farhan Hameed Malik ◽  
Rui Jin Liao ◽  
Bin Liu ◽  
Tariq Nazir

Due to the complex design and high costs of production, solar thermal systems have fallen behind in the world of alternative energy systems. Different mechanisms are applied to increase the efficiency of the solar collectors and to reduce the cost. Solar tracking system is the most appropriate technology to increase the efficiency of solar collectors as well as solar power plants by tracking the sun timely. In order to maximize the efficiency of collectors, one needs to keep the reflecting surface of parabolic trough collectors perpendicular to the sun rays. For this purpose microcontroller based real time sun tracker is designed which is controlled by an intelligent algorithm using shadow technique. The aim of the research project is to test the solar-to-thermal energy efficiency by tracking parabolic trough collector (PTC). The energy efficiency is determined by measuring the temperature rise of working fluid as it flows through the receiver of the collector when it is properly focused. The design tracker is also simulated to check its accuracy. The main purpose to design this embedded system is to increase the efficiency and reliability of solar plants by reducing size, complexity and cost of product.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-131
Author(s):  
K. A. Ignatiev ◽  
E. R. Giniyatullin ◽  
M. G. Ziganshin

Combined air and water heating schemes have been actively used recently for heating public and residential premises. They have certain advantages in countries with a warm climate, whereas in a temperate climate, their use may be unfeasible. The most effective regulation of the heating system in the building can be expected, if all the technology specifics are taken into account, in terms of both the purpose of the room and the methods of regulation. A system focused only on weather-based regulation falls short of meeting to energy-efficient control classes: a heat carrier with the same temperature is distributed among rooms with different requirements for temperature and humidity characteristics. The issues of ensuring the energy efficiency of the combined air and water heating system in public buildings for the temperate continental climate of Russia — the academic building (AB) and laboratory building (LB) of the Kazan State Energy University (KSEU) have been considered. Heating devices of the KSEU heating system have manual control valves installed in the premises, or radiator valves with thermostatic heads, but without room controllers, which does not meet the energy-efficient control classes. An experimental survey of the functioning of the heating system of the KSEU buildings during the 2019 – 2020 and 2020 – 2021 heating seasons was conducted. The optical pyrometry method was used to measure the temperature of the surfaces of windows, walls and elements of the heating system, as well as the temperature and humidity of the air in lecture rooms and corridors of the AB and LB of the KSEU. The parameters of heating devices and indoor air in rooms of various purposes were found compliant with the current sanitary and hygienic requirements. At the same time, the need to switch to a higher class of regulation has been revealed, since, under the current situation, the parameters of the indoor air depend on the outdoor temperature: in the abnormally warm winter of 2020, the indoor air temperature was at the edge of the maximum permissible value, while in the normal climate of winter of 2021, it was at the edge of the minimum permissible value.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (0) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Rasa Džiugaitė-Tumėnienė ◽  
Domas Madeikis

The high share of global energy costs to create an indoor climate has been of increasing interest to the global community for several decades and is increasingly the focus of policy. This paper analyses the energy performance gap between actual energy consumption and energy demand obtained during the dynamic energy simulation and building certification. To identify the energy performance gap, an existing office of energy efficiency class B was selected as a case study. The simulation program IDA Indoor Climate and Energy was used to create a dynamic energy model, based on the designed documentation and the actual indoor climate parameters recorded by the building management system. The results of the case study showed that the accuracy and reliability of the results presented by the dynamic energy model of the building directly depend on the assumptions. The correct values of the internal heat gains, indoor climate parameters, human behavior, air quality levels at different times of the day and season, HVAC system operation parameters and operation modes, specific fan powers of ventilation systems, the seasonal energy efficiency of cooling equipment and characteristics of sun protection measures have to be selected.


10.23856/2705 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-51
Author(s):  
Lidiya Shergina ◽  
Alla Zhemba ◽  
Nataliia Revutska ◽  
Yulia Burma

The article is devoted to the issues of the functioning and development of energy in each country, caused mainly by the economic expediency of renewable energy and the requirements of energy independence. Also, the article examines the importance of replacing traditional fuels with alternative energy sources. The international experience of the countries in the field of efficient use of available natural resources of the fuel and energy complex and enhancement of the potential of the energy sector have been analyzed. A number of common characteristics and directions of energy efficiency improvement for European countries are highlighted. Alternative types of energy and measures necessary for their implementation have been offered. The potential resources of renewable energy sources have been analyzed. The article is devoted to the use of economical and ecological type of fuel - biofuel for Ukraine. On the basis of the analysis of the situation on the energy market, renewable energy is examine, which plays a compensatory role in global energy consumption in the conditions of growing exhaustion of non-renewable sources.


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