Estimating the Direct Rebound Effect in the Residential Energy Sector: An Application in Spain - Green Energy and Efficiency: An Economic Perspective - page 163

1 Introduction

Since the Kyoto Protocol was drawn up in 1997, numerous European countries
have committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions as a way of mitigating
climate change. In this context, energy ef

ciency has a fundamental role to play,
since it enables such emissions to be reduced without affecting individual welfare
and economic development.
In Spain, the residential sector is a good candidate for the design of policies to
promote the ef cient use of energy. According to EUROSTAT data, between 1990

and 2011 the residential sector was the third largest energy consumer after industry
and transport, with a share of almost 17 % of the total energy consumed. Moreover,
household energy demand grew during that period at a relatively steady rate of
around 4 % per annum.
According to IDAE 1 cation and Energy Saving),

homes that use only electricity heating and domestic hot water account for 67 % of
total energy consumption. These results corroborate the data presented by Freire-
Gonz

(Spanish Institute for Diversi

lez [ 5 ] for homes in Catalonia in 2003, which show the proportion of resi-
dential energy use devoted to heating & hot water to be 62.3 %.
The strategies most widely used to promote energy ef

á

ciency in the residential
sector include mainly information campaigns, subsidies for the replacement of
less-ef cient appliances by newer ones that consume less, energy labelling of

domestic appliances and the recently approved Royal Decree 235/2013, which
establishes a

“ basic procedure for the energy certi cation of new and existing

buildings . The obligations introduced under this decree include the provision of

reports on residential CO 2 emissions and energy rating for buildings.
Thanks to this new regulation, families now have more information when they
buy or rent a home. A dwelling with lower CO 2 emissions or a higher energy rating
is assumed to be more energy ef

”

cient, which means that they should spend less on
heating than for a dwelling with higher emissions and a lower rating.
However, not all the increase in energy efciency in dwellings or any other
production system is translated into cost savings. This is due to the so-called
“ . Indeed, this effect may be large enough to exceed the maximum

expected cost savings from technological improvements.
According to Berkhout et al. [ 1 ] and Sorrell et al. [ 15 ], there are three types of
rebound effect 2 : the

rebound effect ”

rst-order response is the substitution
effect that arises from a reduction in the cost of service provided by a more energy
ef

“ direct rebound effect ” or

cient system. It affects only the system, and can be seen in the case of families

1

For more information see the nal report on the project SPAHOUSEC, An á lisis del Consumo

Energ a, available at en http://www.idae.es/ .

2 Sorrell & Dimitropoulos [ 14 ] propose a parallel rebound effect in regard to time. An interesting
paper that analyses this time rebound effect in the main household activities is that of Brencic and
Young [ 3 ].

é tico del Sector Residencial en Espa ñ