Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we undertake a simultaneous assessment of the importance of factors that are individually found to be significant for the adoption of renewable energy systems by households but are not yet tested jointly. These are sociodemographic and housing characteristics, environmental concern, personality traits, and economic factors; i.e. the expected costs of and revenues from the investment. Our results suggest that household decisions to invest in photovoltaic systems and solar thermal facilities are mainly driven by economic factors. Taking account of sociodemographic and housing characteristics, environmental concern, or personality traits has comparatively little relevance, while the quantitative nexus between the decision to invest and returns on the investment is robust to their inclusion.

Zusammenfassung: Diese Arbeit untersucht die Effekte verschiedener Finanzierungsformen zur Förderung von Ökostrom auf die personelle Einkommensverteilung. Betrachtet werden die Verteilungseffekte der bestehenden EEG-Umlage, eines von der EEG-Umlage ausgenommenen Sockelkonsums und eines Energiesolis, der an der Einkommensteuerlast der Haushalte anknüpft. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die EEG-Umlage und der Sockelkonsum zu einer regressiven Verteilungswirkung und einer Erhöhung des Armutsrisikos führen, wohingegen der Energiesoli einen progressiven Verteilungseffekt hat.

This article assesses the redistributive effects of a key element of German climate policy, the promotion of renewables in the electricity generation mix through the provision of a feed-in tariff. The tariff shapes the distribution of households’ disposable incomes by charging a levy that is proportional to household electricity consumption and by transferring financial resources to households who are feeding green electricity into the public grid. Our study builds on representative household survey data, providing information on various socio-demographics, household electricity consumption, and ownership of photovoltaic facilities. The redistributive effects of the feed-in tariff are evaluated by means of inequality indices. All the indices indicate that Germany’s feed-in tariff is regressive.

Summary Identifying free-ridership is significant to several issues relevant to program evaluation, including the calculation of net program benefits and assessments of political acceptability. Despite the potential of free-ridership to seriously undermine the economic efficiency of a program intervention, for instance to foster energy efficiency, the issue remains largely absent from contemporary environmental and energy policy discussions in Europe. One reason for this neglect is the inherent difficulty of assessing which households would have undertaken the energy conservation activity even without the program. This paper proposes a procedure to calculate the free-rider share using revealed preference data on home renovations from Germany’s residential sector.We employ a discrete-choice model to analyze the effect of grants on renovation choices, the output from which is used to assess the extent of free-ridership under a subsidy program very akin to an implemented grants program in Germany. Our empirical results suggest only very moderate energy savings induced by the program, making free-riding a problem of outstanding importance.

Against the background of a currently shrinking contribution from indigenous energy carriers as well as increasing efforts for climate protection, the Energy Outlook 2009 [IER, RWI & ZEW 2010] assesses the development of energy supply and demand in Germany up to 2030. Two cases of energy supply in Germany are examined. The Reference Case assumes a legally regulated nuclear phase-out, whereas the Lifetime Extension Case, further divided into two variants, presumes an extension of the existing nuclear power plants’ lifetime to 40 and 60 years. Sensitivity analyses evaluate the impact of alterations of key influencing parameters such as the demographic and economic development.

With its commitment to double the share of renewable fuels in electricity generation to at least 30% by 2020, the German government has embarked on a potentially costly policy course whose public support remains an open empirical question. Building on household survey data, in this paper we trace peoples' willingness-to-pay (WTP) for various fuel mixes in electricity generation, and capture preference heterogeneity among respondents using random parameter techniques. Based on our estimates, we trace out the locus that links the premia charged for specific electricity mixes with the fraction of people supporting the policy. Albeit people's WTP for a certain fuel mix in electricity generation is positively correlated to the renewable fuel share, our results imply that the current surcharge effectively exhausts the financial scope for subsidizing renewable fuels.

Adequate housing and affordable warmth are essential human needs, the lack of which may seriously harm people's health. Germany provides an allowance to low-income households, covering the housing as well as the space heating cost, to protect people from the consequences of poor housing conditions and fuel poverty. In order to limit public expenditures, payment recipients are required to choose low-cost dwellings, with the consequence that they probably occupy flats with a poor thermal performance. Recipients are thus likely to have a higher energy consumption and energy expenditures. Using a large data set of German households, this paper demonstrates that this counteracting effect is of negligible magnitude. Yet, from an ecological perspective, the allowance scheme creates distorted incentives and should be reformed.