Consumers in Energy Transition: Motives and barriers for prosumption

Abstract

Due to the climate change, energy industry is in continuous change. The importance of committed consumers is rising as they need to reduce their energy consumption in the households too. In this thesis the main focus is on consumers’ energy consumption and possible motivations or barriers to become small-scale electricity producer with sustaina-ble energy technology such as solar panels.

This study is part of Smart Energy Systems Research Platform (SESP) and Fleximar pro-jects in which the main focus is on smart energy and in flexible business models in smart energy. The empirical part of this study was performed with a survey that was exploited in a Facebook group Tuuli-, aurinko- ja pienvesivoiman itserakentajat that consists of members who have an interest in small-scale energy production. The aim of this research is to create an overview for the reader about energy transition, prosumption and consum-er’s role in the energy transition. The aim is to examine what kind of motives and barriers consumers might have towards prosumption and how consumers can be classified in dif-ferent groups based on their environmental self-identity, energy literacy and energy be-havior.

With the results of this research can be identified five different consumer groups that con-sist of consumers who either already are prosumers, are considering to begin prosumption or are not prosumers. These groups were named as passive consumers, green consumers, engineers, expert engineers and unknown consumers. The groups were classified based on their environmental self-identity, energy literacy and energy behavior.