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PV installation: The role of property owners of non-residential buildings in energy transition

Panel: 7. Policies for a green recovery in the buildings sector

Authors:
Katharina Reindl, International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE), Sweden
Jenny Palm, The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE), Sweden

Abstract

Solar energy is an important technology for mitigating climate change. To achieve the EU goals for renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions the transition of the electricity system needs to increase rapidly. Photovoltaics (PV) potentially play an important role in the transition towards a sustainable electricity system.

The market for PVs has been growing for the last years worldwide, even though the growth is unevenly distributed among countries. Sweden’s PV share is 0.24% in the electricity mix in 2019, but the share growing continuously. PV installations can also be seen as a technology to contribute to decarbonise the building sector. Non-residential buildings are interesting to study because they have potential to contribute to increased PV installations due to their available roof space. Around 25% of the building stock in Europe is non-residential. PV is a technology suitable for large- and small-scale applications, fitting the residential and non-residential sector.

The objective of our study is to reveal qualitative insights into barriers and enablers property owner of non-residential buildings encounter regarding PV installations. As a method we applied 25 semi-structured interviews. We studied public and private housing companies owning different buildings like e.g. hospitals, offices, warehouses or schools. The questions is, how can we understand these companies, what are their views on PV installations and what policy recommendations would thus be suitable. No striking differences could be found between different company type or size. We did, however, see differences how long ago companies had installed PVs. There is no one-fits-all policy recommendation.

The companies that installed PVs more than 10 years ago have different needs compared to companies that adopted the technology within the last 10 years. The same applies to non-adopters. The earlier adopters have a clear focus on energy issues and have more concrete formulated goals. Profitability and pay-off times are regarded differently between earlier and later adopters, meaning earlier adopters see the installation as profitable, some later adopters see PVs on the edge of being profitable and non-adopters see no profitability in PVs. Early adopters also think there is much information available, while some more efforts to provide information could be made according to some later adopters. Experiences, routines, and habits established and negotiated within a company can determine whether and how much PV modules are installed.

In-house knowledge and experience aggregated over years is seen as a good base for conducting future projects. Further, trusted relationships between good suppliers is highlighted as a key success factor. Especially later adopters have some concerns regarding rules and regulations. It may be problematic that rules, support and taxes have varied over the years, which makes it difficult to stay updated. All of the adaptors had issues with current tax and VAT rules in Sweden, something that could potentially be changed to drive PV installations to green the building sector.

One solution could be to assess and streamline administrative processes. The earlier the PV module was adopted, the more companies think the technology works well and is mature. Roof constructions are often seen as a constraining factor, one could try to catch the property owners before a renovation (or new construction). If PV adoption for the own building is difficult, it would also be possible to encourage different business models where the property owner does not own the solar cells themselves (shares in PV park) and to support solutions, virtual or physical, that help property owners to store solar energy.

We want to contribute to an enhanced understanding of how property owners decide on PV installation, what kind of patterns can be seen and how different property owners could be targeted with different policy instruments.

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