Preferred design elements of the energy transition: From the perspective of households

In light of the increasing climate change, policy makers have set ambitious targets for greenhouse gas emission. To achieve these targets, it is necessary to speed up the installation of renewable wind and solar power plants. This dynamic calls for an accelerated planning and permitting process with low resistance from citizens. To ensure a high acceptance of the energy transition, it is important to understand which design elements or characteristics, objectives or impacts of the energy transition are more or less preferred by citizens. This study therefore investigates what the preferred design elements for a fair and secure energy transition of German households look like. Based on literature and Energy Union objectives and policies, key dimensions are identified and then described by design elements. The dimensions are: the form of burden sharing of energy transition costs (distributional aspects), actions with respect to investment in and consumption of energy, the origin and security of energy supply and policies for a sustainable energy transition. To identify the favoured design elements, we applied a conjoint analysis. In an online survey conducted among 2000 German citizens, the respondents were asked to choose between two designs of the energy transition that are described by a design element per dimension. The results show that German households favour the polluter-pays rule for burden sharing, a regional energy supply to ensure supply security, information and appeals as policy instruments to promote the energy transition. Regarding actions, households opt for installing private photovoltaics. At the level of dimensions, the approval and refusal of the suggested burden sharing mechanisms were larger than those of the suggested energy supply design elements.