Project Description

Potentials for green electricity in Germany: consumer preferences and investment behaviour of energy suppliers

To assess the potentials for green electricity in Germany, we analyse consumer preferences in the electricity market and the investment behavior of selected energy suppliers in Germany. To assess the consumer preferences we compute the willingness to pay for specific characteristics of the offered electricity (green electricity, the tariff has got a seal of quality, price guarantee) or of the offering energy supplier (offers exclusively green electricity, regional supplier, invests into renewable energies). The consumer’s utility from green electricity is reflected in a higher willingness to pay for electricity products that originate from suppliers that invest into renewable energies, offer green electricity or act regionally. For selected energy suppliers we observed the development of power plants as a proxy for their investment behaviour. It appears that the energy sector is undergoing a transformation towards renewable energies. However, the degree of transformation differs across energy suppliers.

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