Factors Affecting Sustainable Market Acceptance of Residential Microgeneration Technologies. A Two Time Period Comparative Analysis

Abstract

On a global scale, the residential sector is responsible for a significant part of consumed energy, of which the major part is dependent upon fossil fuels. A solution for the reduction of fossil fuel use is the application of residential microgeneration technologies. The present study examines the market acceptance factors of such systems in Greece, as well as how these factors change over time, based on real decisions made by consumers. In this context, two surveys applying a common questionnaire were performed in 2012 and 2019 in order to examine the effects of (a) socioeconomic, residence, and spatial characteristics, (b) environmental awareness and behavior, and (c) factors related to consumer behavior, attitudes, and system attribute preferences. Factors affecting the installation of a microgeneration system are gender, age, income, residence type, ownership and size, environmental behavior, use of a subsidy program, as well as views on costs and market-related issues. When evaluating the effect of these factors over time, socioeconomic and residence characteristics, as well as environmental behavior, seem to have a fixed effect to the installation of residential microgeneration systems, with market acceptance fluctuations being related mainly to market conditions, including existing subsidy programs, expectations on fuel prices, and legislation.

Considering Urban Development Paths and Processes on Account of Adaptive Reuse Projects

“…Regarding educational level, the majority of the respondents are university (post)graduates (72.8%). Thus, the sample is mostly comprised of the young and highly educated, a finding which is consistent with the representativeness in online surveys [50]. Regarding respondents' occupation, 68.8% were working when the survey was conducted (employees, self-employed, and civil servants), while, of the remaining, 24.8% were students and 4.6% were unemployed ( Figure 5).…”

“…As for their personal monthly income, respondents reported having an average monthly personal income of €604 (min 100; max 5000; median 950). The respondents' profile analysis is consistent with the wider literature and official statistics as well as the economic reality in Athens [50,51]. EMST, and thus it can provide a good basis to study the hypothesis that was set out, that is visitors' views on the results derived from the urban scene from the FIX Brewery transformation.…”

Influencing the adoption of microgeneration technologies using the theory of planned behaviour

“…Naturally, residents account for a significant percentage of energy usage in their various activities, including electrification, heating and cooking. Globally, residents consume 20% of the total energy (Karytsas, Vardopoulos, & Theodoropoulou, 2019). For example, in South Africa, households account for 25% of the total energy consumption (Department of Energy, 2018), whilst China and India account for 12.4% and 24.3%, respectively (Jiang, Chen, & Xue, 2019;Singh, Mantha, & Phalle, 2018).…”

“…Given the reliance on coal-generated energy in emerging countries, there is a need to meet the different targets espoused by various emerging countries, and microgeneration technologies can also be effective in reducing environmental degradation. There is thus a need to define 'microgeneration technologies' or 'distributed generation technologies'; in this study they denote small-scale technologies that produce electricity and/or heat for household use (Grubic, Varga, Hu, & Tewari, 2019;Karytsas et al, 2019).…”

Critical Factors Influencing the Adoption of Smart Home Energy Technology in China: A Guangdong Province Case Study

“…Globally, the residential sector is responsible for 20% of the total energy consumption, and this is expected to increase by 10% until 2040 due to the growth of population, economic development and improvement of living standards [1,2]. Many technologies have been developed and engaged to solve the energy efficiency problem of residential buildings.…”