Hans Curtius
Former Member
Thumbnail Image
Title
Dr.
Last Name
Curtius
First name
Hans
Email
hans.curtius@unisg.ch

Filters

7 1
Reset filters

Settings
Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
  • Publication
    Shotgun or snowball approach? Accelerating the diffusion of rooftop solar photovoltaics through peer effects and social norms
    (Electronic preprint / Working Paper submitted for publication, )
    Curtius, Hans Christoph
    ;
    Hille, Stefanie
    ;
    Berger, Christian
    ;
    Hahnel, Ulf
    ;
    Wüstenhagen, Rolf
    In the last decade, feed-in tariffs have been the method of choice for policymakers trying to accelerate the diffusion of solar photovoltaics (PV). Despite the overall effectiveness of feed-in tariffs, actual adoption rates have shown surprising regional differences, pointing to the presence of peer influence and regional spillover effects. For future diffusion of photovoltaics, understanding these social influences on the decision to adopt is key. Several studies have used revealed preference approaches to discern peer effects in PV adoption, proving their existence but leaving open questions about underlying psychological mechanisms. We close this gap by conducting a survey among potential PV adopters in one of the top three fastest-growing European solar markets and find that two types of social norms, descriptive and injunctive norms and their underlying interplay, play an important role in explaining PV adoption decision and diffusion patterns. Our findings have significant policy implications – as an alternative to following the shotgun approach of uniform nationwide incentives, policymakers should consider inducing snowball effects by facilitating the creation of regional hot spots. Such programs, which may be supported through co-investments between federal and local authorities, would effectively complement existing policy approaches.
    Type: journal article
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/116428
  • Publication
    Red is the new blue – The role of color, building integration and country-of-origin in homeowners​' preferences for residential photovoltaics
    (Electronic preprint / Working Paper submitted for publication, )
    Hille, Stefanie
    ;
    Curtius, Hans Christoph
    ;
    Wüstenhagen, Rolf
    The wider diffusion of solar photovoltaics (PV) is crucial to lower the environmental impact of the residential sector, which is responsible for a large share of energy consumption in many industrialized countries, including Switzerland. We investigate the extent to which financial and non-financial factors drive homeowners’ preferences for PV in Switzerland. In addition, we estimate the price premium that homeowners are willing to pay for building-integrated PV (BIPV) versus rack-mounted PV. By conducting an adaptive choice-based conjoint (ACBC) with a representative sample of Swiss homeowners planning to undertake a roof renovation project, we find a premium in willingness to pay of 21.79% for a roof with a BIPV installation in comparison with a rack-mounted PV installation. The results also reveal that the color and country of origin of the PV modules are the main drivers for increasing share of preference for PV. We further show that certain forms of governmental support to increase energy savings over a longer period (e.g. feed-in tariffs), provided that they are transparently disclosed over an aggregated time frame, would be almost equally effective in spurring demand for PV as one-off grants to lower investment costs. Implications for energy policy and marketing are discussed.
    Type: journal article
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/116427
  • Publication
    Red is the new blue – The role of color, building integration and country-of-origin in homeowners ’ preferences for residential photovoltaics
    (Elsevier Science, 2018-03)
    Hille, Stefanie
    ;
    Curtius, Hans Christoph
    ;
    Wüstenhagen, Rolf
    The wider diffusion of solar photovoltaics (PV) is crucial to lower the environmental impact of the residential sector, which is responsible for a large share of energy consumption in many industrialized countries, including Switzerland. By conducting an adaptive choice-based conjoint (ACBC) with a representative sample of Swiss homeowners planning to undertake a roof renovation project, we investigate the extent to which financial and non-financial factors drive homeowners’ preferences for PV in Switzerland. We reveal that the color and country of origin of the PV modules are the main drivers for increasing share of preference for PV. In addition, we estimate the price premium that homeowners are willing to payfor building-integrated PV (BIPV) versus rack-mounted PV. We find a premium in willingness to pay of 21.79% for a roof with a BIPV installation in comparison with a rack-mounted PV installation. We further show that an increase in revenues from electricity sales (e.g. via feed-in tariffs), when transparently disclosed over an aggregated time frame, would be almost equally effective in spurring demand for PV as a decrease of initial investment costs (e.g. via one-off investment grants). Implications for energy policy and marketing are discussed.
    Type: journal article
    Journal: Energy and Buildings
    Volume: 162
    URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778817303298
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.11.070
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/100704
    Scopus© Citations 37
  • Publication
    The adoption of building-integrated photovoltaics: barriers and facilitators
    (Electronic preprint / Working Paper submitted for publication, 2017)
    Curtius, Hans Christoph
    Type: journal article
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/102915
  • Publication
    Generic customer segments and business models for smart grids : Empirical evidence from a cross-European country study
    (Springer-Verlag, 2012-08)
    Curtius, Hans
    ;
    Kuenzel, Karoline
    ;
    Loock, Moritz
    The implementation of smart grids - one of the urgent goals to meet international policy expectations for energy efficiency and CO2 reduction targets - is not a technological issue alone, as it also requires social acceptance by various stakeholders (Wolsink 2011). It is of particular interest that smart grid products and services provide value to the customer. On the one hand, customer value of smart grid technologies is crucial to customer acceptance. On the other hand, as customer value is a key driver for economic value creation and competitive advantage (DeSarbo et al. 2001; Porter 1985), it is also important for companies and investors and thus will affect market acceptance of smart grid technologies. In the literature, business models address the bridge between customers and company needs and serve as mediators between technology and economic success by providing a value proposition to customers and a revenue model for companies (Chesbrough and Rosenbloom 2002). However, we know from the literature that a one-size-fits-all business model may not lead to the best results as it might fail to address heterogeneous customer value perceptions (DeSarbo et al. 2001; Morris et al. 2005; Ruiz et al. 2007; Wiedmann et al. 2009). Thus, different business models providing different customer value propositions need to be developed to fit the different market segments in an optimal way. On the basis of a cross-European country study, we explore three generic B2C customer segments for smart grid products and services based on different value perceptions (Supporters, Ambiguous and Skeptics). Based on the segmentation we conceptually derive four generic business model designs with different customer value propositions best suited for approaching those segments (Saver, Smart+, Trader, Smart Camouflage). Implications for energy policy, research and smart grid management are derived from the findings.
    Type: journal article
    Journal: der markt: International Journal of Marketing
    Volume: 51
    Issue: 2-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s12642-012-0076-0
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/91242
  • Publication
    Customer value of smart grids: Empirical evidence from a cross-European-country study and implications for business models
    ( 2011-06-22)
    Loock, Moritz
    ;
    Curtius, Hans
    An aspect of paramount importance in this regard is that smart grid business models meet consumer expectations. Especially along with increasing market liberalization energy firms need to understand and react upon consumer preferences. Thus, an investigation of consumer preferences and conclusions of how those might affect business models in the field is of interest. However, we still only poorly understand consumer preferences in the field of smart grids and how those preferences differ across different consumer typologies and different countries. Thus we ask, what are customer preferences in the field of smart grids and how do customer preferences differ between different customer types and across countries? From earlier research we learned that not only technology but business models are relevant for the establishment and further diffusion of clean technology in general (e.g. Boehnke, 2007; DISTRES, 2009; Frantzis et al., 2008; Loock, 2010a; Schoettl & Lehmann-Ortega, 2010; Wüstenhagen & Boehnke, 2008). However, when it comes to smart grids we have only found limited research that indicates which business model configurations exist and which of these different consumer types would prefer (Forsa, 2010; Kaufmann, 2010; Kranz, 2010). For a thorough evaluation of the benefit of certain business model configuration a deep understanding of customer preferences is a precondition. A suitable analytic frame for such investigation is the concept of customer value, which exactly discusses the interface between customer preferences and a firms offering, hence it's business model. In particular customer value has been identified as an important object of a firm's approach of economic value creating (Belz & Bieger, 2006; Parasuraman, 1997; Slater, 1997; Woodruff, 1997). "Customer value is a customer's perceived preference for and evaluation of those product attributes, attribute performances, and consequences arising from use that facilitate (or block) achieving the customer's goals and purposes in use situations" (Woodruff, 1997: 142). We conducted an online consumer survey on smart grids for four European countries (Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Lichtenstein). After recruitment of cunsumers by online and print media, by leaflets and by inserts to the electricity bill of a regional energy provider we got a sample of 837 probands. A hierarchical clustering based on Ward's method on SPSS was used to identify three clusters. The analysis is based on questions relating the advantages and reservations of using smart meters. We characterized each customer type according to socio-economic aspects. In line with previous research (Forsa 2010) we detected a high number (around 2/3) of customers who do not have any prior knowledge and have never heard about smart meters. Different results, however, were obtained from Germany where only about 1/3 of respondents stated to have never heard about smart meters. Another interesting outcome is the fact, that the expected advantages of the usage of smart meters greatly outweigh the concerns by almost all respondents. In line with this wie detected a high willingness to pay for a smart meter by one third of the consumers. With help of a cluster analysis we furthermore assigned customers to three clusters, each with customers that have different amounts of concerns and expect different amounts of advantages. Surprising differences about their willingness to pay for smart meters and their attitude to the consumption of green energy could be established. Those results have implications for further research on social acceptance of smart grids and managerial business model design for smart grid products and services.
    Type: presentation
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/93935
  • Publication
    Type: working paper
    Issue: Nr. 181
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/77180
  • Publication
    Type: working paper
    Issue: Nr. 174
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/79515