Research

Characterizing the Danish energy prosumer : Who buys solar PV systems and why do they buy them?

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Abstract

Lower costs and stop-go policy around 2012 created two distinct groups of households with solar photovoltaics (PVs) in Denmark – a large group of early adopters (annually metered), and a smaller group of later adopters (hourly/real-time metered). This paper analyses these groups to characterize Danish PVs prosumer households and identify why they bought PVs. A comparison of a full population of 73,974 Danish household PVs owners (registered as of 2015) with other households shows that adopters tended to have higher incomes, be older, live in rural areas, have newer houses, and use individual heating (e.g. heat pumps). Moreover, the registered owners of PVs tended to be technically educated men. A 2018 survey of 2505 PVs owners indicates that later adopters were slightly more inspired by peers, whereas early adopters were more inspired by news articles and sales drives. Moreover, independence, financial gains, and displaying proenvironmental action are identified as motivations to adopt PVs. This paper concludes that technically educated men seem to dominate the decisionmaking process and that Danish energy prosumers seem to share (more or less) the same characteristics and motivations as PVs adopters in other contexts despite the distinct diffusion pattern in Denmark.