EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Conjoint analysis of Japanese households’ energy-saving behavior after the earthquake: The role of the preferences for renewable energy

Shin Kinoshita

Energy & Environment, 2020, vol. 31, issue 4, 676-691

Abstract: Energy savings among households is an important energy challenge in Japan. After the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, electricity shortages became a worry because nuclear power plants ceased operations. The conditions that households require to save electricity are analyzed in the paper by a conjoint analysis. An annual electricity bill, CO 2 emissions, a stable electricity supply, and energy sources that generate electricity are considered. The role of energy sources, especially renewable energy, in energy savings is focused. When renewable energy such as solar and wind power is used, households who prefer it might use less electricity as well. A random parameter logit model is used for estimation. The promotion of renewable energy and energy savings should be encouraged in Japan’s official energy policy. If electricity generated by renewable energy is provided, households that prefer renewable energy choose such an electricity and will reduce their electricity usage. As a result, the promotion of renewable energy and energy savings could be addressed simultaneously. The estimation results indicated that households would save more electricity if an annual electricity bill is reduced. In addition, they also would save more electricity if CO 2 emissions are reduced and if a stable electricity supply is secured. If nuclear power is used for electricity generation, they do not use less electricity. If renewable energy is provided, they tend to use less electricity. Thus, renewable energy provides incentives for households to reduce electricity usage. It is possible to promote energy savings by utilizing consumers’ interest in renewable energy.

Keywords: Energy savings; conjoint analysis; renewable energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0958305X19882386 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:engenv:v:31:y:2020:i:4:p:676-691

DOI: 10.1177/0958305X19882386

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Energy & Environment
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:sae:engenv:v:31:y:2020:i:4:p:676-691