Information’s role in household PV adoption

Abstract: Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are being installed at a rapid pace, particularly in buildings. Homeowners who want to make environmentally positive choices are not energy experts and need help understanding this new, expensive product. In response, online calculators that semi-automatically provide technical and economic information have also grown rapidly; however, sometimes, more information is not necessarily better.

In this seminar, Nelson Sommerfeldt will present a multi-perspective overview of how Swedish homeowners shop for solar PV, how information plays a role in the adoption process, and how it can be improved. He will discuss the challenges of creating digital information sources for non-expert consumers and present preliminary research results from the new online solar maps developed with project partners.

Bio: Nelson Sommerfeldt is a Postdoc at the Energy Systems Engineering, Economics, and Data Analytics Group (ENSEED). His research interests are centred around the rapid adoption of sustainable technologies in the built environment, focusing on solar energy and heat pumps. Specific topics include the development of new PV/thermal hybrid collectors, control strategies for maximizing techno-economic system performance, Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis, and the behaviour of investors and users of building energy systems.

Link to the profile of Nelson Sommerfeldt

Nelson Sommerfeldt on LinkedIn