Table 2 Overview of previous CA/DCE applications in energy and sustainability studies
Specifications of the studies | Variations across the literature |
|---|---|
Individuals being interrogated… | • Citizens as consumers/private households [84, 85] • Citizens as potentially affected by an energy technology [62, 61] • Citizens as private investors [86,87,88,89] • Stakeholders involved in technology installation and operation [90, 91] |
…concerning the objects of investigation… | Single energy technologies: • Economic and ecologic effects of wind energy [64], including onshore [61] and offshore [63], siting decisions of geothermal power plants [92], nuclear waste [65], photovoltaics, hydro schemes, biomass, waste combustion, natural gas [62] Policies, programs, products: • Climate change mitigation policies for residential energy use [84] • Private investments in technologies [89], e.g., wind [87], solar thermal [93] • Electricity products [94], load control management/domestic appliance curtailment contracts [95] • Smart meters [96], electricity saving products [97], energy pricing programs for demand side management [98] |
…testing the value of the attributes… | Environmental aspects: • Impacts on landscape, wildlife, air pollution [62], and landscape, habitat and fauna in combination with costs of technologies [61] • Marine species abundance and diversity with artificial reefs, wind farm ownership, esthetic impacts [63] Economic/social aspects: • Employment in local community, price for electricity [62] • Town location, distance from respondents’ home, monetary savings, tax revenue of community [64] • Willingness to pay for energy efficiency versus CO2 reduction measures [84] • Return, risk, duration and field of private financial investments [88, 89] Level of information/personal involvement • Environmental labeling, disclosure of information about life-cycle [85, 99] • Transparent information on energy sources for electricity products [94], feedback provision on energy saving-programs [97, 100] • Level of engagement in the technology/control over the technological features [96, 98] • Procedural fairness and distributive justice in policy decisions [65] • Personal convenience: type of curtailment contracts, frequency of curtailment, opt-out, advance notice, compensation [95] |
…accounting for differences across individuals due to… | • Urban vs. rural communities [62] • Environmental attitudes & behavior [87, 95] • Trust in electricity suppliers [95] |
…using methodological variations | • Comparison of contingent rating and choice experiment [61], CA and self-explicated method [101] • CA to improve communication between LCA analysts and stakeholders [91] • Combination of CA with field experiment [98] |