Development of a methodology to evaluate characteristics of energy technology by conjoint analysis

Hiwatari, Ryoji*; Okano, Kunihiko*; Asaoka, Yoshiyuki*; Nagano, Koji*; Ogawa, Yuichi*; Kato, Takaaki*; Tobita, Kenji; Norimatsu, Takayoshi*

Key to take public acceptance into account on the energy system is how to evaluate and compare quantitatively the merits and the demerits of each energy system from the public viewpoint. For this purpose, a method to evaluate the property of energy technology is developed based on the conjoint analysis technique. Based on the statistical method, utility values for energy abundance, environmental load (i.e. CO emission), stability of supply, sense of security, and other features as well as economic performance, are estimated from several thousands of choice experiments to more than 1600 respondents volunteered in the study. The basic methodology developed in this study establishes the first step to assess energy technology quantitatively on a common standard, and needs further integration with other factors, such as waste generation other than CO emission.