ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 49

International Conference | Bari - Lecce, Italy Session I - II MEASURING AND PREDICTING RESIDENTIAL MARKET ACCEPTANCE FOR PHOTOVOLTAIC TECHNOLOGIES IN MELBOURNE VICTORIA Neville Hurst1 & Sara Wilkinson2 1 School of Property, Construction & Project Management, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001 Australia. Email: [email protected] 2 School of the Built Environment, Faculty of Design Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney, NSW, 2007, Australia. Email: [email protected] Abstract Globally varied, and in some cases extensive efforts, have been made by governments and industry stakeholders to create a market appetite for solar technologies within the housing sector. Given the benefits to the individual home-owner of lower energy bills and, more broadly to the environment as housing contributes 25% of all built environment related green house emissions, it is perplexing why solar technologies do not have a more consolidated position in the housing domain. Uptake of such technologies by end users has been moderate and this phenomenon has not been unnoticed by researchers. Since global warming is a universal problem, and with efforts to abate further damage remaining elusive, it is both appropriate and timely to review how residential markets are responding to these technologies. Australian governments have adopted a view of allowing market forces to drive the social acceptance of energy efficiency technologies into the housing market psyche. Newly constructed homes in Australia are required to meet minimum energy efficiency performance standards. However, there remains no requirement to uplift the energy performance of existing buildings, which are, and will be for many years to come, the substantive population of the Australian housing stock. This is also the case for other countries. Real estate agents, as market facilitators, are in a unique position to observe market behaviours and potentially influence them through their engagement with buyers and sellers. Using this unique circumstance, this research has examined an extensive database of real estate agent advertisements in Melbourne Victoria from 2008 - 2013 to undertake a time series analysis aimed at measuring the rate of increase of the appearance of words relating to solar technologies. It was found that without specific government efforts aimed at increasing the appetite of homebuyers for energy efficient housing the opportunity for solar technologies to significantly contribute towards the mitigation of climate change in the foreseeable future would be lost. Keywords energy efficiency, real estate agent, housing, advertising, Solar 47