Conjoint analysis of Japanese households’ preferenc es for renewable energy and the conditions for its diffusion

Recently, in Japan and other countries, renewable e nergy sources such as solar power are being promoted as alternative energy sources instead of n uclear power and fossil fuels. Renewable energy is “green energy,” in that it does not emit greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Following the Great East Japan Earthquake, nuclear power plants ceased operations and have not yet resumed. Although these plants are pl nned to resume operations, Japan cannot rely on nuclear power as these plants will be decom missioned in the future. This research utilizes conjoint analysis to investi gate the common conditions and use of renewable energy in Japanese households. The resear cher p esents hypothetical renewable energy programs to households, analyzes the conditi s under which they participate in the programs, and examines which renewable energy sourc es they prefer. Four types of renewable energy sources are considered: solar power, wind po wer, biomass, and fuel cells/private electric generators. Other conditions are monthly bills, management supp liers (major existing suppliers, major new suppliers, or small/medium new local suppliers), ne w local employment, benefits for participants (tax credits, coupon tickets in a loca area, awards from local public organizations, name listed on a local government website, and free tick ts for green parks and environmental plants). Many studies about energy are focused on s ocial norms, which are defined as social behavior, considering sociality and social issues s uch as climate change. Sometimes, individuals accommodate themselves to neighbors. The current st udy examines whether individuals choose renewable energy programs based on non-monetary inc ent ves such as social norms or monetary incentives such as monthly bills. A random paramete r logit model is used for this estimation. From the estimation results, households clearly pre fer lower bills. Households evaluate solar power above biomass and do not highly evaluate wind power and fuel cells. Though households with children below the age of thirteen are suppose d to be altruistic and interested in climate change issues and renewable energy for future gener ations, significant results to this effect were not obtained. However, in the subsample of househol ds interested in advanced appliances, such as solar panels, micro-home wind generators, storag e b tteries, and fuel cells, the coefficient of the renewable energy ratio was positive and signifi cant. A higher renewable energy ratio is preferred among such households. The coefficient of local new employment was generally positive and significant. Households support renewa ble energy electric power plants if these plants contribute to local new employment. They pre fer major new suppliers to major existing suppliers and do not prefer new small/medium local suppliers. Regarding benefits, they did not evaluate tax credits compared with awards or names list d on the website of the local government, and negatively evaluated local coupon t ickets and free tickets of environmental plants and national parks. Households do not respon d to monetary incentives and prefer nonmonetary incentives. The results conclude that mone tary incentives are not always necessary for the common use of renewable energy.