IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v87y2015icp325-333.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Power to change: Analysis of household participation in a renewable energy and energy efficiency programme in Central Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Havas, Lisa
  • Ballweg, Julie
  • Penna, Chris
  • Race, Digby

Abstract

The Australian government funded a national Solar City program (2008–2013) to support communities to increase adoption of energy efficiency measures and renewable energy technology. One community was Alice Springs, a town with about 9000 households in the geographic centre of Australia. The programme offered a package of support: free energy audits, discounts for the purchase of renewable energy technology and energy efficiency measures, and ongoing information. Households that adopted solar hot water and photovoltaic systems reduced their electricity usage immediately after adoption by 10% and 34% respectively, and this was maintained in the long term. A small rebound effect of 15% was observed in the photovoltaic adopters. It was observed that, on average, households that adopted only energy efficiency measures did not have a significant reduction in their electricity usage over the long term. However, consistent with expectations, this study did show that there was a significant correlation between the number of energy efficiency measures adopted and the greatest household reduction in electricity usage. These contrary results indicate that there are additional factors involved. The connection between the effective use of measures, coincident behavioural change or increased energy awareness and greater energy reduction is discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Havas, Lisa & Ballweg, Julie & Penna, Chris & Race, Digby, 2015. "Power to change: Analysis of household participation in a renewable energy and energy efficiency programme in Central Australia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 325-333.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:87:y:2015:i:c:p:325-333
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2015.09.017
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142151530104X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2015.09.017?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Scott, S., 1997. "Household energy efficiency in Ireland: A replication study of ownership of energy saving items," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 187-208, May.
    2. Gadenne, David & Sharma, Bishnu & Kerr, Don & Smith, Tim, 2011. "The influence of consumers' environmental beliefs and attitudes on energy saving behaviours," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 7684-7694.
    3. van Houwelingen, Jeannet H & van Raaij, W Fred, 1989. "The Effect of Goal-Setting and Daily Electronic Feedback on In-home Energy Use," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 16(1), pages 98-105, June.
    4. Drury, Easan & Miller, Mackay & Macal, Charles M. & Graziano, Diane J. & Heimiller, Donna & Ozik, Jonathan & Perry IV, Thomas D., 2012. "The transformation of southern California's residential photovoltaics market through third-party ownership," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 681-690.
    5. Mills, Bradford & Schleich, Joachim, 2012. "Residential energy-efficient technology adoption, energy conservation, knowledge, and attitudes: An analysis of European countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 616-628.
    6. Zahedi, A., 2010. "Australian renewable energy progress," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(8), pages 2208-2213, October.
    7. Hsiaw, Alice, 2013. "Goal-setting and self-control," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 148(2), pages 601-626.
    8. Labay, Duncan G & Kinnear, Thomas C, 1981. "Exploring the Consumer Decision Process in the Adoption of Solar Energy Systems," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 8(3), pages 271-278, December.
    9. Poortinga, Wouter & Steg, Linda & Vlek, Charles & Wiersma, Gerwin, 2003. "Household preferences for energy-saving measures: A conjoint analysis," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 49-64, February.
    10. A. Greening, Lorna & Greene, David L. & Difiglio, Carmen, 2000. "Energy efficiency and consumption -- the rebound effect -- a survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(6-7), pages 389-401, June.
    11. B. Howarth, Richard & Haddad, Brent M. & Paton, Bruce, 2000. "The economics of energy efficiency: insights from voluntary participation programs," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(6-7), pages 477-486, June.
    12. Faiers, Adam & Neame, Charles, 2006. "Consumer attitudes towards domestic solar power systems," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(14), pages 1797-1806, September.
    13. Jacobsson, Staffan & Johnson, Anna, 2000. "The diffusion of renewable energy technology: an analytical framework and key issues for research," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(9), pages 625-640, July.
    14. Lenzen, Manfred & Wier, Mette & Cohen, Claude & Hayami, Hitoshi & Pachauri, Shonali & Schaeffer, Roberto, 2006. "A comparative multivariate analysis of household energy requirements in Australia, Brazil, Denmark, India and Japan," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 181-207.
    15. Hanemann, W. Michael & Kanninen, Barbara, 1996. "The Statistical Analysis Of Discrete-Response Cv Data," CUDARE Working Papers 25022, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    16. Klein, Roger W & Spady, Richard H, 1993. "An Efficient Semiparametric Estimator for Binary Response Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 61(2), pages 387-421, March.
    17. Varone, Frederic & Aebischer, Bernard, 2001. "Energy efficiency: the challenges of policy design," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(8), pages 615-629, June.
    18. Sidiras, Dimitrios K. & Koukios, Emmanuel G., 2004. "Solar systems diffusion in local markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(18), pages 2007-2018, December.
    19. Mills, Bradford F. & Schleich, Joachim, 2009. "Profits or preferences? Assessing the adoption of residential solar thermal technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 4145-4154, October.
    20. Howarth, Richard B. & Andersson, Bo, 1993. "Market barriers to energy efficiency," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 262-272, October.
    21. Bor, Yunchang Jeffrey, 2008. "Consistent multi-level energy efficiency indicators and their policy implications," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 2401-2419, September.
    22. Berkhout, Peter H. G. & Muskens, Jos C. & W. Velthuijsen, Jan, 2000. "Defining the rebound effect," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(6-7), pages 425-432, June.
    23. Oikonomou, V. & Becchis, F. & Steg, L. & Russolillo, D., 2009. "Energy saving and energy efficiency concepts for policy making," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4787-4796, November.
    24. Kaldellis, J.K. & Kavadias, K.A. & Spyropoulos, G., 2005. "Investigating the real situation of Greek solar water heating market," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 9(5), pages 499-520, October.
    25. de Vries, Bert J.M. & van Vuuren, Detlef P. & Hoogwijk, Monique M., 2007. "Renewable energy sources: Their global potential for the first-half of the 21st century at a global level: An integrated approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 2590-2610, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Galvin, Ray & Dütschke, Elisabeth & Weiß, Julika, 2021. "A conceptual framework for understanding rebound effects with renewable electricity: A new challenge for decarbonizing the electricity sector," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 423-432.
    2. Meltem Ucal, 2017. "Energy-saving behavior of Turkish women: A consumer survey on the use of home appliances," Energy & Environment, , vol. 28(7), pages 775-807, November.
    3. Ghimire, Sujan & Deo, Ravinesh C. & Raj, Nawin & Mi, Jianchun, 2019. "Deep solar radiation forecasting with convolutional neural network and long short-term memory network algorithms," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Salvia, Amanda Lange & Brandli, Luciana Londero & Leal Filho, Walter & Locatelli Kalil, Rosa Maria, 2019. "An analysis of the applications of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for selection of energy efficiency practices in public lighting in a sample of Brazilian cities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 854-864.
    5. Ross C. Beppler & Daniel C. Matisoff & Matthew E. Oliver, 2023. "Electricity consumption changes following solar adoption: Testing for a solar rebound," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(1), pages 58-81, January.
    6. Atasoy, Ayse Tugba & Schmitz, Hendrik & Madlener, Reinhard, 2021. "Mechanisms for Rebound Effects of Solar Electricity Prosuming in Germany," FCN Working Papers 10/2021, E.ON Energy Research Center, Future Energy Consumer Needs and Behavior (FCN), revised 01 Jun 2023.
    7. Deepu Krishnan & Scott Kelly & Yohan Kim, 2022. "A Meta-Analysis Review of Occupant Behaviour Models for Assessing Demand-Side Energy Consumption," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-23, February.
    8. Kim, Jae D. & Trevena, William, 2021. "Measuring the rebound effect: A case study of residential photovoltaic systems in San Diego," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    9. Edgar Valenzuela & Hector Campbell & Gisela Montero & Marcos A. Coronado & Alejandro A. Lambert-Arista & Carlos Perez-Tello & Víctor H. Ramos-Sanchez, 2021. "Evaluation of Home Energy Efficiency Improvements in a Hot Desert Climate in Northwestern Mexico: The Energy Saving vs. Money Saving Conflict," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-9, November.
    10. Sylwia Słupik & Joanna Kos-Łabędowicz & Joanna Trzęsiok, 2021. "How to Encourage Energy Savings Behaviours? The Most Effective Incentives from the Perspective of European Consumers," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-25, November.
    11. Qiu, Yueming (Lucy) & Wang, Yi David & Xing, Bo, 2021. "Grid impact of non-residential distributed solar energy and reduced air emissions: Empirical evidence from individual-consumer-level smart meter data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    12. Ghimire, Sujan & Deo, Ravinesh C. & Raj, Nawin & Mi, Jianchun, 2019. "Wavelet-based 3-phase hybrid SVR model trained with satellite-derived predictors, particle swarm optimization and maximum overlap discrete wavelet transform for solar radiation prediction," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-1.
    13. Frondel, Manuel & Kaestner, Kathrin & Sommer, Stephan & Vance, Colin, 2021. "Photovoltaics and the Solar Rebound: Evidence for Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242356, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    14. McAndrew, Ryan & Mulcahy, Rory & Gordon, Ross & Russell-Bennett, Rebekah, 2021. "Household energy efficiency interventions: A systematic literature review," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    15. Junhyung Kim & Keon Baek & Eunjung Lee & Jinho Kim, 2023. "Analysis of Net-Metering and Cross-Subsidy Effects in South Korea: Economic Impact across Residential Customer Groups by Electricity Consumption Level," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-14, January.
    16. Deng, Gary & Newton, Peter, 2017. "Assessing the impact of solar PV on domestic electricity consumption: Exploring the prospect of rebound effects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 313-324.
    17. Fridgen, Gilbert & Halbrügge, Stephanie & Olenberger, Christian & Weibelzahl, Martin, 2020. "The insurance effect of renewable distributed energy resources against uncertain electricity price developments," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    18. Frondel, Manuel & Kaestner, Kathrin & Sommer, Stephan & Vance, Colin, 2022. "Photovoltaics and the solar rebound: Evidence for Germany," Ruhr Economic Papers 954, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    19. Toroghi, Shahaboddin H. & Oliver, Matthew E., 2019. "Framework for estimation of the direct rebound effect for residential photovoltaic systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    20. Matthew E. Oliver & Juan Moreno-Cruz & Ross C. Beppler, 2019. "Microeconomics of the rebound effect for residential solar photovoltaic systems," CESifo Working Paper Series 7635, CESifo.
    21. Roth, Lucas & Lowitzsch, Jens & Yildiz, Özgür, 2023. "Which (co-)ownership types in renewables are associated with the willingness to adopt energy-efficient technologies and energy-conscious behaviour? Data from German households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Oikonomou, V. & Becchis, F. & Steg, L. & Russolillo, D., 2009. "Energy saving and energy efficiency concepts for policy making," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4787-4796, November.
    2. Schleich, Joachim & Gassmann, Xavier & Faure, Corinne & Meissner, Thomas, 2016. "Making the implicit explicit: A look inside the implicit discount rate," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 321-331.
    3. Mills, Bradford & Schleich, Joachim, 2014. "Household transitions to energy efficient lighting," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 151-160.
    4. Véronique Vasseur & Anne-Francoise Marique & Vladimir Udalov, 2019. "A Conceptual Framework to Understand Households’ Energy Consumption," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-22, November.
    5. Magdalena Grębosz-Krawczyk & Agnieszka Zakrzewska-Bielawska & Beata Glinka & Aldona Glińska-Neweś, 2021. "Why Do Consumers Choose Photovoltaic Panels? Identification of the Factors Influencing Consumers’ Choice Behavior regarding Photovoltaic Panel Installations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-20, May.
    6. Trotta, Gianluca, 2018. "Factors affecting energy-saving behaviours and energy efficiency investments in British households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 529-539.
    7. Andersen, Kristoffer Steen & Wiese, Catharina & Petrovic, Stefan & McKenna, Russell, 2020. "Exploring the role of households’ hurdle rates and demand elasticities in meeting Danish energy-savings target," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    8. Ryszard Kata & Kazimierz Cyran & Sławomir Dybka & Małgorzata Lechwar & Rafał Pitera, 2021. "Economic and Social Aspects of Using Energy from PV and Solar Installations in Farmers’ Households in the Podkarpackie Region," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-21, May.
    9. Morgane Innocent & Agnès François-Lecompte & Nolwenn Roudaut, 2020. "Comparison of human versus technological support to reduce domestic electricity consumption in France," Post-Print hal-02450849, HAL.
    10. Briguglio, Marie & Formosa, Glenn, 2017. "When households go solar: Determinants of uptake of a Photovoltaic Scheme and policy insights," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 154-162.
    11. Oikonomou, Vlasis & Rietbergen, Martijn & Patel, Martin, 2007. "An ex-ante evaluation of a White Certificates scheme in The Netherlands: A case study for the household sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 1147-1163, February.
    12. Sara Ghaboulian Zare & Reza Hafezi & Mohammad Alipour & Reza Parsaei Tabar & Rodney A. Stewart, 2021. "Residential Solar Water Heater Adoption Behaviour: A Review of Economic and Technical Predictors and Their Correlation with the Adoption Decision," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-26, October.
    13. Galarraga, Ibon & González-Eguino, Mikel & Markandya, Anil, 2011. "Willingness to pay and price elasticities of demand for energy-efficient appliances: Combining the hedonic approach and demand systems," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(S1), pages 66-74.
    14. Kurdgelashvili, Lado & Shih, Cheng-Hao & Yang, Fan & Garg, Mehul, 2019. "An empirical analysis of county-level residential PV adoption in California," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 321-333.
    15. Véronique Vasseur & Anne-Francoise Marique, 2019. "Households’ Willingness to Adopt Technological and Behavioral Energy Savings Measures: An Empirical Study in The Netherlands," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-25, November.
    16. Ward, David O. & Clark, Christopher D. & Jensen, Kimberly L. & Yen, Steven T. & Russell, Clifford S., 2011. "Factors influencing willingness-to-pay for the ENERGY STAR® label," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1450-1458, March.
    17. Wang, Jianming & Li, Yongqiang & He, Zhengxia & Gao, Jian & Wang, Jianguo, 2022. "Scale framing, benefit framing and their interaction effects on energy-saving behaviors: Evidence from urban residents of China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    18. Su, Yu-Wen, 2019. "Residential electricity demand in Taiwan: Consumption behavior and rebound effect," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 36-45.
    19. Magdalena Grębosz-Krawczyk & Agnieszka Zakrzewska-Bielawska & Sylwia Flaszewska, 2021. "From Words to Deeds: The Impact of Pro-Environmental Self-Identity on Green Energy Purchase Intention," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-17, September.
    20. Yu, Zhen & Gibbs, David, 2018. "Encircling cities from rural areas? Barriers to the diffusion of solar water heaters in China's urban market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 366-373.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:87:y:2015:i:c:p:325-333. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.