Testing Campbell paradigm: are people with conservation attitudes willing to surmount higher hurdles of micro-generation technology adoption?
Abstract
Adoption of micro-generation technologies by households increases share of renewable energy in the residential energy mix. Yet, introduction of these technologies is hindered by many barriers, price being one of the most important (Achtnicht, 2011; Allen et al., 2008; Caird and Roy, 2010; Claudy et al., 2011; Scarpa and Willis, 2010).
Building on the Campbel's paradigm (Campbell, 1963; Kaiser et al., 2010), we hypothesize that people with higher conservation attitudes are willing to surmount higher hurdles associated with adoption of micro-generation technologies. We conduct an experiment on a sample of general population (N=3200) in which we present to each participant one of 8 microgeneration technologies (photovoltaics, solar thermal, hybrid solar, wind turbines, CHP on biomass or gas, heat pump and hydrogen fuel cell) and ask him whether he would be willing to adopt it for given cost.
The cost of the technology is varied randomly. We find that people with stronger conservation attitudes are willing to pay more for micro-generation technologies.
As expected by Campbell's paradigm, people with stronger environmental attitudes are willing to surmount higher price-related barriers associated with adoption of micro-generation technologies.