Grants

University of California, Berkeley

To plan, coordinate, and facilitate interdisciplinary research on energy efficiency

  • Amount $855,763
  • City Berkeley, CA
  • Investigator Catherine Wolfram
  • Initiative Behavioral Economics and Household Finance (BEHF)
  • Year 2012
  • Program Research
  • Sub-program Economics

The "Energy Efficiency Paradox" refers to the stubborn fact that energy efficiency improvements judged cost effective in theory nevertheless fail to find wide adoption in practice. Surprisingly few people, for example, weatherize their homes even when given all sorts of information and incentives. Though many researchers have studied aspects of the paradox, no serious, concerted research initiative to understand it has been conducted. Funds from this grant support the efforts of Elizabeth Bailey at the University of California, Berkeley to convene a working group to recruit and resource coordinated research projects that can help resolve the Energy Efficiency Paradox. Funded activities include efforts to build an active community of economists, engineers, and behavioral scientists to conduct coordinated research in cooperation with business owners, investors, consumers, utility officials, energy entrepreneurs, and public policymakers. The Bailey working group will seek financial support for energy efficiency research and provide support resources to associated researchers, including setting methodological and metadata standards, facilitating data access, and supporting archiving infrastructure.

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