Understanding the uneven diffusion of building-scale renewable energy systems: A review of household, local and country level factors in diverse European countries

This review focuses on renewable energy technology deployment in residential buildings, which is part of current targets to develop net-zero-carbon buildings in Europe and to promote the deployment of renewable energy. We focus on the adoption of four technologies: heat pumps, solar photovoltaics, solar thermal systems for domestic hot water and space heating, and advanced biomass heating. While there are several studies on households’ investment criteria, a research gap exists because building owners across Europe are quite diverse, and the European markets exhibit different stages of maturity. This article conducts a critical review of the literature on the diffusion of building-scale renewable energy solutions in order to answer the following questions: (1) to what extent can findings from studies on household adoption criteria be generalized from one country to another? and (2) what insights does the literature offer on factors that might explain the differences in adoption patterns between European countries?