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Accelerating the Dutch heat transition by understanding and responding to drivers and barriers of homeowners: practical tools for citizen engagement
Panel: 2. Efficiency and beyond: innovative energy demand policies
This is a peer-reviewed paper.
Authors:
Renee Kooger, TNO Energy Transition Studies, The Netherlands
Nicole de Koning, TNO, The Netherlands
Casper Tigchelaar, TNO
Melanie Klösters, TNO
Maaike Roelofs, TNO
Laurie Hermans, TNO
Jaara Bijvoet, TNO, The Netherlands
Abstract
In the Netherlands, 92 % of houses are heated by natural gas. "The Netherlands has the ambition to phase out natural gas consumption in 2050". The biggest challenge is to renovate existing dwellings as these often lack sufficient insulation and use gas-fired boilers. New homes in the Netherlands have a better insulation grade and are since 2017 required to have a natural gas free alternative. Engaging homeowners is specifically important, because they are the sole decisionmakers on what happens (or does not happen) in and around their home. There is currently no law allowing municipalities or other parties to overturn a homeowner's decision. It is therefore very important to understand what drives homeowners towards a sustainable home and what barriers hey face in this process.
In this paper we summarize insights gained from a three-year Dutch research program on how to accelerate the heat transition by involving homeowners and understanding their wants and needs. This program is based on a large body of empirical research, e.g. in-depth interviews with homeowners and civil servants who design and implement the heat transition plans, workshops with municipalities, intermediaries and representatives of the national program on gas free neighbourhoods. As a framework to help municipalities understand and respond to the variety of homeowners’ drivers and barriers, we have developed a customer journey towards living in a natural gas free home. We present in this paper the contributions of three specific studies of this empirical research program. First, we discuss drivers and barriers for homeowners in the phase out of natural gas from their homes. In a second study, we clustered the identified drivers and barriers to define main themes, which appear to be essential for home-owner participation during all the steps of the customer journey. Finally, in our most recent study, we provide practical guidelines for setting up and performing effective citizen engagement. In this most recent study, we identified a strong need for practical support especially among smaller municipalities who often lack sufficient time, knowledge and financing for the (further) development of tailored citizen engagement strategies. To address this need we developed a website as an online tool with practical tips, tools and examples, to be used by these municipalities.
Downloads
Download this paper as pdf: 2-080-22_Kooger.pdf
Download this presentation as pdf: 2-080-22_Koning_pres.pdf
Panels of
1. Dynamics of consumption: less is more?
2. Efficiency and beyond: innovative energy demand policies
3. Policy, finance and governance
4. Monitoring and evaluation for a wise, just and inclusive transition
5. Towards sustainable and resilient communities
6. Energy-efficient and low-carbon mobility for all
7. Policies and programmes for better buildings
8. Innovations in products, systems and building technologies