An investigation into energy efficiency : household and food retail sectors in Singapore

Abstract

The topic of energy efficiency is an emerging one with the continued emphasis to address global emissions and climate change. Energy efficiency offers the opportunity of reducing emissions at zero cost. This thesis is concerned with developing an understanding in energy efficiency and energy use through empirical studies in both the household and the food retail sectors.

The thesis consists of two self-contained essays.

Chapter 1 investigates the role of energy label for home appliances in Singapore. Provision of energy usage information can drive investments in energy efficiency. Using a discrete choice experiment, a hypothetical marketplace allows the willingness-to-pay for efficiency to be estimated. The conditional and mixed logit models uncovered a higher-than-expected willingness-to-pay, and that the energy labels seemingly do bridge the information gap and drive the demand for efficiency.

Chapter 2 studies the food-retail industry in their energy-efficiency investment and energy-use behaviours. Through a stated preference approach, the study aims to identify the barriers and the drivers of energy efficiency and conservation. Ordered probabilistic models are applied to show that the energy-use reductions are motivated by both private and social gains, and that imperfect information explains the lack of efficient investments.