The price of energy efficiency in the Spanish housing market

The housing sector is a substantial consumer of energy, and therefore a focus for energy savings efforts. The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), introduced in 2002 and revised in 2010, is a key instrument to increase the energy performance of buildings across the European Union. Following the implementation of the EPBD into Spanish law, all properties offered for sale or rented out in Spain are required to have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). Given that the implementation of the EPC scheme for new, existing and advertised properties is still very low in Spain, unlike other European housing markets, the Spanish one lacks market data on energy efficiency (EE) labels and their impact on housing price. To overcome this gap, we determine the EE ratings of a sample of 1507 homes across Spain on the basis of information collected previously through household surveys. This allowed us to answer the question of whether or not, and to what extent, Spanish housing markets capitalise the value of EE. We apply the hedonic-price technique and observe that more energy efficient dwellings have a price-premium between 5.4% and 9.8% compared to those with the same characteristics but lower EE level. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd.The authors acknowledge the PURGE Project (Grant Agreement no. 265325 ) of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission for financial support in carrying out the survey work. Additionally, Ibon Galarraga wishes to recognise the support of the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Government of Spain (Project ECO2013–41183–P : Economía de la Eficiencia Energética en el Sector Residencial y de Transporte en España)

Promoting energy efficiency at household level: a literature review

The household sector is one of the most energy-intensive sectors in Europe, and thus a focal point for reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with energy consumption. Energy efficiency is considered a key measure to reduce household energy consumption, but several factors could lead to an underinvestment in energy efficiency. This is the so-called energy efficiency gap or paradox. The factors in question are grouped under market failures (including informational failures), behavioural failures and other factors. Various policies can be used to address these failures and promote the adoption of energy-efficient technologies, including energy standards and codes, economic incentives and information instruments. This paper reviews the empirical evidence to date on energy efficiency policies and discusses their effectiveness. On the one hand, command and control instruments seem to be effective policies, but they have to overcome several barriers. In the case of price instruments, subsidies and taxes do not seem to be effective while rebates present mixed results as they sometimes are effective and in other cases, they could present significant shortcomings. Finally, the effectiveness of informational policies is not always ensured as they depend on the country, sector and product category. Information feedback tools also seem to be effective as they work as a constant reminder of energy-efficient behaviour. Some limitations of energy efficiency policies are also identified, such as the difficulties of implementing codes and standards given that a minimum level need to be achieved, differences in the effectiveness of rebate programmes and non-conclusive results in regard to the effectiveness of monetary energy efficiency labels. © 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. part of Springer Nature.This study was conducted as part of the CONSumer Energy Efficiency Decision making (CONSEED) project, an EU-funded H2020 research project under grant agreement number 723741. This research is also supported by the Spanish State Research Agency through María de Maeztu Excellence Unit accreditation 2018-2022 (Ref. MDM-2017-0714). The project leading to these results has received funding from ‘la Caixa’ Foundation under the project SR0435 led by Ibon Galarraga. Amaya de Ayala also acknowledges the support of Fundación Ramon Areces under XVIII Concurso Nacional para la Adjudicación de Ayudas a la Investigación en Ciencias Sociales. Marta Escapa is grateful for financial support from the University of the Basque Country (Grant GIU18/136) and from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Grant RTI2018-093352-B-I00)

The Effect of Providing Monetary Information on Energy Savings for Household Appliances: A Field Trial in Spain

Energy labels are one of the most widely used policies in the European Union for increasing the energy efficiency of household appliances. However, their effectiveness in promoting energy-efficient purchases has sometimes been called into question. One of the reasons for this is that consumers may have difficulties in fully understanding the energy consumption information provided on labels (in kilowatt-hour per year). Some authors argue that to avoid this problem energy consumption information should be converted into monetary information. We analyse whether providing monetary information on lifetime energy savings can significantly increase purchases of energy-efficient appliances. To that end, a field experiment was carried out with small retailers in Spain. The experiment involved three types of appliances: washing machines, fridges and dishwashers. The impact of monetary information on actual purchases of appliances was tested in different ways: (i) by including a monetary label to display energy savings during the lifetime of the product; (ii) by the monetary information provided by sales staff; and (iii) by combining (i) and (ii). We find that the effectiveness of providing monetary information depends on the appliance and the specific way in which the information is provided. For washing machines, providing monetary information through a monetary label seems effective in promoting the purchase of highly energy-efficient appliances. However, for fridges, both monetary information provided by staff alone and the combination of the monetary label and information from sales staff seem to be effective in promoting purchases of A+++ fridges. Surprisingly, no effect is found for dishwashers. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.This study was conducted as part of the CONSumer Energy Efficiency Decision making (CONSEED) project, an EUfunded H2020 research project under grant agreement number 723741. This research is also supported by the Spanish State Research Agency through María de Maeztu Excellence Unit accreditation 2018-2022 (Ref. MDM-2017-0714). This study was conducted as part of the CONSumer Energy Efficiency Decision making (CONSEED) project, an EU-funded H2020 research project under grant agreement number 723741. This research is also supported by the Spanish State Research Agency through María de Maeztu Excellence Unit accreditation 2018-2022 (Ref. MDM-2017-0714). Financial support from the Government of Spain and the European Regional Development Fund through grant RTI2018-093692-B-I00 is gratefully acknowledged by Amaia de Ayala and Ibon Galarraga. Amaya de Ayala also acknowledges the support of Fundación Ramon Areces under XVIII Concurso Nacional para la Adjudicación de Ayudas a la Investigación en Ciencias Sociales

The Wilson renormalization group for low x physics: towards the high density regime

We continue the study of the effective action for low $x$ physics based on a Wilson renormalization group approach. We express the full nonlinear renormalization group equation in terms of the average value and the average fluctuation of extra color charge density generated by integrating out gluons with intermediate values of $x$. This form clearly exhibits the nature of the phenomena driving the evolution and should serve as the basis of the analysis of saturation effects at high gluon density at small $x$.Comment: 14 pages, late