HEEP Co-Sponsors Workshop on the Energy-Efficiency Gap in Germany

April 16, 2014
HEEP Co-Sponsors Workshop on the Energy-Efficiency Gap in Germany
BERLIN, GERMANY - APRIL 02, 2014: Sticker for determination of the energy efficiency class of electrical appliances on a refrigerator on April 02, in Berlin, Germany. The energy efficiency of the appliance is rated in terms of a set of energy efficiency classes from A to G on the label, A being the most energy efficient, G the least efficient. (Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images)

HEEP and the Duke University Energy Initiative (DUEI) co-sponsored, with the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), a workshop on the energy-efficiency gap at ZEW's headquarters in Mannheim, Germany, on March 12-13, 2014. Eighteen economists, almost all based in Europe, actively conducting research on this topic participated. Presentations from the workshop (combined into one PDF file) are available here.

The workshop was part of an ongoing HEEP research project to better understand the energy-efficiency gap—that is, the apparent gap between the rate of adoption of energy-efficiency technology by individuals and households that one might expect, given the benefits apparently associated with such adoption, and the rate at which such technology is actually adopted. The project is conducted in collaboration with the DUEI, co-directed by HEEP Director Robert Stavins and DUEI Director Richard Newell, and supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.