I. Ališauskaitė-Šeškienė “Comparative assessment of renewable energy sources generation technologies in households” doctoral thesis defence

Author, Institution: Ilona Ališauskaitė-Šeškienė, Lithuanian Energy Institute

Science area, field of science: Social Sciences, Economics – 04S

Scientific Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Dalia Štreimikienė (Lithuanian Energy Institute, Social Sciences, Economics – 04S).
Scientific Advisor: Dr. Tomas Baležentis (Lithuanian Institute of Agrarian Economics, Technical Sciences, Informatics Engineering – 07T).

Dissertation Defence Board of Economics Science Field:
Prof. Dr. Daiva Dumčiuvienė (Kaunas University of Technology, Social Sciences, Economics, 04S) – chairperson,
Prof. Dr. Veselin Draškovič (University of Montenegro, Social Sciences, Economics, 04S),
Prof. Dr. Habil. Valentinas Klevas (Lithuanian Energy Institute, Social Sciences, Economics, 04S),
Prof. Dr. Astrida Miceikienė (Aleksandras Stulginskis University, Social Sciences, Management, 03S),
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Asta Sabonienė (Kaunas University of Technology, Social Sciences, Economics, 04S).

The doctoral dissertation is available at the libraries of Kaunas University of Technology (K. Donelaičio str. 20, Kaunas), Klaipėda University (K. Donelaičio a. 3, Klaipėda) and Lithuanian Energy Institute (Breslaujos g. 3, Kaunas).

Annotation:
It is important to know the attitudes of energy consumers since their attitudes are the foundations of their resulting behavior. Thus, while developing promotion policy for the use of renewables and their technology, not only expert opinions become a necessity – opinions of households, their priorities and the key factors that determine their choice between different energy production technologies must be considered. The problem of dissertation research is complex, combining both: the lack of research upon Lithuanian households’ attitudes towards RES technologies and the lack of consumers’ opinion and their preferences for RES technologies, while forming policy for the promotion of RES based on subsidies and incentives. Lithuanian RES promotion policy is primarily directed towards the promotion of renewable energy in the manufacturing sector, however, volume of support for specific renewable energy technologies lacks a scientific basis. Until now households’ attitudes towards RES technologies (precisely, the so-called microgeneration technologies – renewable energy generation technologies that are installed in households) as well as criteria according to which households choose to install renewable energy technologies at home, have not been addressed and consumers’ opinion has not been taken into account. Purpose statement – to carry out comparative assessment of RES generation technologies (microgeneration) in Lithuanian households. In the first part of dissertation the importance of RES while implementing energy development goals is validated, RES barriers are analyzed and systematized. The second part of dissertation describes possible research methods and examines the applicable methodology for households willingness to pay (WTP) for RES technologies and multi-criteria development methods (MCDM) for comparative assessment of RES technologies. In the third part the research conducted from WTP and MCDM is described along with the instruments used to carry it out, as well as the results of households’ willingness to pay is presented and the ranking of microgeneration technologies is accomplished.