Journal of the Japan Institute of Energy
Online ISSN : 1882-6121
Print ISSN : 0916-8753
ISSN-L : 0916-8753
Short Paper
Estimating Regional Benefits of Renewable Energy Installation Using Willingness to Pay
Yusuke HIRONAKAHiroki HONDO
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JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2017 Volume 96 Issue 2 Pages 52-57

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Abstract

The use of renewable energy is expanding year by year thanks to the feed-in-tariff (FIT) scheme in Japan, but the financial burden on electricity consumers (i.e. the FIT surcharge) is correspondingly growing and as a result consumers may become increasingly discontented with the FIT surcharge in the future. The present study aims at examining consumers’ acceptance of the financial burden for expanding renewable energy. We estimated how much value consumers find in regional benefits created by renewable energy installed in a town where they were living. We focused on the non-financial regional benefits among a variety of regional benefits, and estimated willingness to pay (WTP) for the non-financial benefits using a contingent valuation method. The results from a questionnaire survey conducted with 1,000 residents in Iida-city, Nagano in 2015 showed that the estimated WTP was 686 yen per month per household. Furthermore, the present study suggested that compared to under the current FIT scheme, they may accept higher financial burden for installing renewable energy when consumers can obtain regional benefits by the installation in a town where they were living.

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© 2017 The Japan Institute of Energy
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