scholarly journals The Purchase Decision-making Process for Renewable Heating Technologies: A Consumer Perspective

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mario B. Reichler

The discussion about energy has become an important topic in recent years. For end users, issues, such as price increases for oil and gas, limited resources, and alternative energy sources, have become increasingly important, attracting the attention of scholars and politicians alike. Political discussions on energy issues form part of the daily news. For example, pollution of the environment with carbon dioxide (CO2) and global warming due to the greenhouse effect have become hot topics for debate. Considering the growing importance of renewable energy for households, this investigation focuses on the factors that drive homeowners to purchase renewable energy technologies, as well as on the implications of these factors on the design of future business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing models that can contribute towards an increase in the use of renewable energy. Contextually, the research is based on heating consumption in German households. This thesis examines the potential purchase of existing renewable energy technologies by end users in the German housing market. The increased use of renewable energy is not studied with a view towards future technologies, but rather in terms of the decisionmaking process of end users to possibly invest in already available renewable heating technologies. Decision-making processes are seen as discrete activities which involve individuals over a period of time. These processes include selection and implementation, and have an end point (Wilson, 2004). Based on a grounded research methodology, a series of interviews have been carried out with homeowners as decision-makers for the purchase of existing renewable energy heating systems. The interviewees are homeowners who live in old houses with bad insulation and heating technology standards, still constituting a high proportion of homeowners in Germany. The understanding of their decision-making process can help managers of renewable energy companies, politicians, and local authorities develop viable strategies for increasing the purchase of renewable heating technologies. This research indicates the importance of not only rational decision-making factors as strongly economical related issues affecting the purchase of renewable heating technologies, but also of bounded rational factors influenced by the personal insights of homeowners and their relationship to involved stakeholders within the market for renewable heating technologies.

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Indre Siksnelyte-Butkiene ◽  
Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas ◽  
Dalia Streimikiene

Different power generation technologies have different advantages and disadvantages. However, if compared to traditional energy sources, renewable energy sources provide a possibility to solve the climate change and economic decarbonization issues that are so relevant today. Therefore, the analysis and evaluation of renewable energy technologies has been receiving increasing attention in the politics of different countries and the scientific literature. The household sector consumes almost one third of all energy produced, thus studies on the evaluation of renewable energy production technologies in households are very important. This article reviews the scientific literature that have used multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods as a key tool to evaluate renewable energy technologies in households. The findings of the conducted research are categorized according to the objectives pursued and the criteria on which the evaluation was based are discussed. The article also provides an overview and in-depth analysis of MCDM methods and distinguishes the main advantages and disadvantages of using them to evaluate technologies in households.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
L.H. Ganegodage ◽  
◽  
K.G.A.S. Waidyasekara ◽  
H. Mallawaarachchi ◽  

Energy related carbon emission of buildings is a major cause of global warming. In order to mitigate energy related carbon emission, buildings tend to adopt renewable energy technologies. Amongst renewable energy technologies, grid-tied PV technology has gained the interest of building energy consumers as an alternative energy source. Nevertheless, there is considerably low implementation of grid-tied PV technology in Sri Lanka, especially as a carbon reduction strategy. A key reason for lack of implementation of grid-tied PV system is that majority of buildings still depend on traditional energy sources for their total energy needs. Hence, there is a need of highlighting the importance of grid-tied PV system to penetrate the existing traditional energy market. The aim of this study is therefore to assess the possible energy related carbon reduction of grid-tied PV system for buildings in Sri Lanka. Accordingly, total of four (4) buildings were selected as case studies, including two buildings with grid-tied PV technology and two other buildings that are totally dependent on traditional energy sources. Subsequently, carbon footprint assessment was conducted to four (4) buildings specifying to energy related carbon emitting activities. And research findings revealed that selected two buildings with grid-Tied PV technology achieve an average reduction of carbon by 3379.77kg and 3013.06kg respectively per month compared to traditional-energy buildings. Consequently, this work has successfully identified that buildings with grid-tied PV technology achieve a reduction in energy related carbon emission compared to buildings with traditional energy sources.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-48
Author(s):  
Andrew Johnson

Environmentalists continuously push for us, as a country, to decrease our fossil fuel usage and transition to a society powered by renewable energy. The money of oil companies and other corporations persuade our government to continue investing in fossil fuels as opposed to renewable energy. There are, however, other reasons which should convince us as a nation to invest in alternative energy sources. Eliminating our dependence on fossil fuels will benefit the nation economically and prepare us for a rapidly changing future. We, as Americans, should increasingly pursue renewable sources of alternative energy not only for the documented environmental reasons but also because investing in renewable energy technologies will provide jobs for Americans, decrease our dependence on other nations, and benefit the health of all Americans while decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels.


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