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Exploring citizens' decision to crowdfund renewable energy projects: Quantitative evidence from France

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  • Bourcet, Clémence
  • Bovari, Emmanuel

Abstract

Over the past few years, benefiting from broad citizen and political support, renewable energy (RE) crowdfunding has experienced a strong growth in France. RE crowdfunding is a relevant instrument to support the transition from fossil to RE sources by simultaneously diversifying funding possibilities, committing retail investors to the energy transition, and fostering local acceptance. Thus, it is crucial to better understand the RE crowdfunding investment decision-making process to design and assess related policies. However, the existing literature on RE crowdfunding is relatively scarce and has not focused on this issue so far. Relying on a novel survey dataset, this article specifically aims at filling this gap using a probit regression analysis. Our findings suggest that, among the French population, the main predictors of the decision to invest in RE crowdfunding (sign in parentheses) are: (i) the general opinion about the RE sector (positive), (ii) opinions about the RE sector durability (i.e., business continuity over time) and investment opportunities transparency (positive), and (iii) risk perception (negative). Besides this, positive and strong spillovers arise from existing RE investments in other vehicles. These results are unchanged by the introduction of various controls. Additionally, they suggest that the policy framework recently implemented in France – such as the Greenfin label (2015), RE development targets explicitly introduced in the Programmation pluriannuelle de l'énergie (2015), or the recent PACTE law (2019) that provides support to various green investment possibilities – is relevant to foster the development of RE crowdfunding. Such policies indeed contribute to anchor investors' expectations, improve coordination and transparency, and provide spillovers' opportunities, which are the key levers identified in this paper.

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  • Bourcet, Clémence & Bovari, Emmanuel, 2020. "Exploring citizens' decision to crowdfund renewable energy projects: Quantitative evidence from France," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:88:y:2020:i:c:s0140988320300931
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2020.104754
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    4. Pons-Seres de Brauwer, C. & Cohen, J.J., 2020. "Analysing the potential of citizen-financed community renewable energy to drive Europe's low-carbon energy transition," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
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    8. Winatha, Arvin, 2020. "Crowdfunding dan Hubungan Erat nya dengan Digital Humanities," OSF Preprints gky2x, Center for Open Science.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Crowdfunding; Renewable energy investment; Probit analysis; Green Finance; France;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C25 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources

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