It’s worth mixing it up: what combination of policies will lead to a clean energy future?

Climate protection and the energy revolution must continue to make progress, and private households can make a significant contribution to this goal if they use environmentally friendly technologies such as solar panels, electric vehicles and heat pumps. Dr. Mart van der Kam and Professor Ulf Hahnel of the University of Basel in Switzerland have studied the political measures needed to fully realize this potential.

Together with researchers from the University of Geneva, their team first surveyed nearly 1,500 Swiss households to understand why they decided to support or oppose environmentally friendly technologies. They then fed the data into a dynamic model that represents households and their interactions as decision-makers in society. This allows researchers to test which policy measures best meet the needs of households, supporting wider adoption of these technologies. Their findings were recently published in Cell Sustainability Report.

Personal motivation effect is too small

Mart van der Kam acknowledges that increasing competition among manufacturers is making it more affordable and attractive for consumers to adopt environmentally friendly technologies such as electric vehicles. However, he said political measures were necessary to encourage wider use of technologies such as solar panels and heat pumps. “It is not individual incentives that have a decisive impact, but the right combination of political measures,” he stressed in summarizing their findings.

Subsidies for solar panels or heat pumps, for example, are only a small part of the picture. It is also important to remove barriers that prevent tenants from using these technologies. “Until now, landlords have had to invest, but tenants have benefited from lower energy costs,” Vanderkam points out. This makes the owner’s investment less worthwhile.

Tenant solutions

The example of solar panels illustrates how government intervention can remove barriers faced by renters: For many years, renters have had the right to install solar panels on their balconies. Vanderkam suggested that policies supporting similar heat pumps or energy storage solutions might be possible in the future, perhaps in the form of neighborhood batteries that can provide solar energy from multiple buildings or entire districts simultaneously and then be used as a power source.

“Nearly two-thirds of Swiss households are renters. This represents huge untapped potential and can be a big step forward in the energy revolution,” said Ulf Haenel. He believes that interdisciplinary research that considers not only technological innovations but also the various preferences of consumers can determine the path to targeted stimulus packages and structures. “We must combine different disciplines and their approaches to address complex and multifaceted challenges such as climate change and the energy revolution,” Hanel stressed.