Own power: Motives of having electricity without the energy company

New technologies will enable households to generate an increasing amount of their own electricity. Intentions to generate own power are a preliminary step towards actual behavior. Because own generation is still very limited and the behavior of early adopters may not be representative for the complete population, our study focuses on intentions rather than actual behavior. A consumer survey among 2047 Dutch households reveals that environmental concerns are the most important driver of a household's intention to generate its own power. Affinity with technology and energy and the reputation of electricity companies are also significant drivers, but financial factors and power outages are not. About 40% of Dutch households have an intention to generate their own power, with an overrepresentation of young households. This group falls apart in two sub segments; for the "generating savers" (21%) a high intention to generate own power coincides with a high intention to save energy, whereas generating users (18%) combine a high intention to generate own power with a low intention to save energy. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.