An Empirical Study of How Household Energy Consumption Is Affected by Co-Owning Different Technological Means to Produce Renewable Energy and the Production Purpose

Benefits Achieved by Energy Suppliers through Cooperation with Individual Recipients and Their Readiness for This Cooperation

The aim of this article is to identify the benefits perceived by individual recipients that are achieved by consumer energy suppliers on the market, through multilateral trade cooperation, and to define the structure of these benefits according to the declared readiness of recipients to cooperate with the suppliers. The results of the analysis of the available literature on the subject indicate that there is a cognitive and research gap in relation to the perceived benefits achieved by the suppliers through joint marketing activities. The benefits are not being analyzed; especially from the perspective of individual recipients’ readiness for this cooperation. This gap is noticeable not only in relation to the energy market, but also in other areas of the consumer market. In an effort to reduce the identified gap, an online survey was conducted among 1196 adult individual energy recipients in Poland. The primary data collected was subjected to quantitative analysis using the following research methods: average grade analysis, comparative analysis, and exploratory factor analysis. The Kruskal–Wallis test was also conducted. The results of the quantitative analysis indicate, inter alia, that the majority of the respondents declared their readiness to cooperate with energy suppliers on the preparation of marketing offers. This variable statistically significantly differentiated nine out of twelve analyzed benefits that, according to the respondents, suppliers obtain as a result of cooperation. This differentiation was not found only in the case of three benefits related to the cost-free acquisition of recipient potential. For all respondents, as well as for the respondents willing to cooperate with suppliers and for those who did not express such willingness, three sections were identified, including the respondents who saw the same benefits achieved by suppliers. The conclusions drawn on the basis of the analysis results constitute a significant contribution to the theory of marketing and the theory of market behavior of individual recipients in the energy market. They also bear clear application advantages, making it easier for energy suppliers to effectively initiate cooperation with individual recipients and/or strengthen this cooperation.

Does Energy Community Membership Change Sustainable Attitudes and Behavioral Patterns? Empirical Evidence from Community Wind Energy in Germany

Community energy is seen as a helping hand for local, decentralized energy transition. Besides the main goal of supporting the community-friendly and socially acceptable development of renewable energies, the hope is also that a pro-environmental influence on sustainability behavior will be triggered when joining a community energy project. An analysis of a survey among 16 community energy projects in Germany, with 565 completed questionnaires, shows that a certain part of the members pays more attention to their energy behavior and develop a more positive attitude towards a decentralized energy transition and citizen participation after joining the community energy project. Therefore, we can empirically support that climate protection projects, such as community energy, influence pro-environmental attitudes and behavior, but this does not apply equally to all population groups. Members with higher income and stronger interest in returns are less likely to change their behavior. Based on these findings, we recommend the development of community energy policies that are more responsive to differences in social structure and address both privileged and underprivileged groups in a sophisticated way using specific offers and modes of involvement within the associations.

An Empirical Approach to Differences in Flexible Electricity Consumption Behaviour of Urban and Rural Populations—Lessons Learned in Germany

This article analyses two major trends of the 21st century. Firstly, the transition from fossil fuel-based energy production to renewable energy sources. Secondly, the inexorable urbanisation which can be witnessed all over the globe. The most promising renewable energy production technologies for the near future, i.e., wind and solar energy, are volatile by nature which makes matching supply and demand essential for a successful transition. Therefore, the aspects that determine the willingness of consumers to flexibilise their demand has gained growing attention. Initial research shows that different settings for (co-)ownership in terms of available prosumption options and used production technologies have a varying impact on demand flexibility. However, existing research has analysed flexibility drivers solely for the general population as an aggregate without any distinction regarding spatial, economic, or social factors. In this article, the authors go one step further and analyse whether those drivers for flexible consumption behaviour differ in rural or urban areas acknowledging differences in day-to-day life in both cases. This study is based on 2074 completed questionnaires from German consumers which were analysed using propensity score matching. The results show that people from rural and urban areas do not significantly differ in their willingness to be demand flexible in general. However, (co-)owners of RE installations from rural areas are generally significantly more demand flexible than (co-)owners of RE installations from urban areas. Further, when looking at different RE technologies, the results show that (co-)owners of solar installations are significantly more demand flexible if they are from rural areas. Lastly, when looking at usage options, people who solely consume produced electricity are more demand flexible if they are from rural areas as well.