Research Outputs

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 36
  • Publication
    An Experimental Investigation on the Comprehension of Electricity Consumption, Generation and Grid Supply Visualization
    Energy consumption at the household level has a significant environmental impact. However, it is often difficult for end users to understand this complex topic. Hence, end users need to sight and understand their own energy data by means of appropriate visualizations to achieve a sustainable change towards more efficient energy consumption behavior. By means of an experimental online survey, the comprehension of energy data visualizations with regard to the daily electricity consumption of a multi-person household was surveyed. A total of n = 538 respondents were asked about their comprehension at three levels of difficulty, considering the response duration. The results show that comprehension differs depending on the energy data visualization type and its information density. This work contributes to determine appropriate visualization types to unleash potential for more energy efficient end user behavior.
      149  4503
  • Publication
    On the challenges of empowering citizens in technological innovation matters
    In order to counteract a constant global warming, the empowerment of civil society and economy are considered necessary prerequisites for the energy transition. Responsive forms of participation have to be considered in an early phase of projects and employed continuously throughout the intention. However, there are common challenges within participation processes. We illustrate a use case consisting of the implementation of technological innovations using a slow bottom-up approach. Our main thesis suggests that an active interference of social space leads to higher technology acceptance and therefore to an easier implementation of innovative technologies to increase the citizens’ quality of life. Due to the fact that our target group shows high diversity we focus on specific mediators that influence technology acceptance. Therefore, we conducted a mixed-method approach with quantitative and qualitative components. We present our main results and experiences of the first project phase in this article.
      417
  • Publication
    A User Perspective on current Drivers and Barriers for Electric Vehicle Usage in Austria
    The global electric vehicle market is rapidly growing, which is an important step, as electro-mobility is an essential driver for achieving climate targets. However, acceptance of electric vehicles is still lacking among potential users. To overcome their skepticism, it is necessary to understand the decisive factors for the consumers’ decision-making process. Therefore, this work investigates essential drivers and barriers to electric vehicle adoption derived from international literature. Electric vehicle users from the electro-mobility-club Austria were interviewed by means of an online survey. Importance-performance analysis was conducted to analyze the data. Interpretations are supported by means of receiver operating characteristic analysis. The results show that the environmental performance of electric vehicles is a key motivator for participants and that this is already perceived as satisfying. Major barriers governments and manufactures should address are acquisition cost, range and time consumption associated with the usage of electric vehicles.
      223  9688
  • Publication
    Geschichten aus der Wissenschaft : Die Wirkungen von narrativen Texten in der Wissenschaftskommunikation am Beispiel der Ernährungsaufklärung auf Nachrichtenwebsites in Österreich
    (Springer, 2019)
    Ameseder, Christian 
    ;
    Der vorliegende Beitrag geht der Frage nach, ob Geschichten die Vermittlung wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisse unterstützen können. Die Wirkungen einer narrativen Darstellung auf das Interesse, die Verständlichkeit und die Glaubwürdigkeit wurden mit drei Methoden untersucht: einer Dokumentenanalyse, einem qualitativen und einem quantitativen Experiment. Beim quantitativen Experiment mit 126 ProbandInnen ergaben sich keine signifi kanten Unterschiede zwischen einem narrativen und einem nicht-narrativen Text. Beim Interesse und der Glaubwürdigkeit ergaben sich leichte Tendenzen zugunsten des nicht-narrativen Textes. Eine narrative Darstellung könnte hingegen nach objektiven Maßen – und entgegen der eigenen Wahrnehmung – für Personen mit niedrigerer Ausbildung verständlicher sein.
      549
  • Publication
    Participation in Energy Transition - Challenges within the Scope of Smart Grids
    The inclusion and empowerment of civil society and economy are considered necessary prerequisites for the energy transition that has to be achieved. This contribution shows the process of participation approaches in general as well as a use case within the scope of smart grids in particular. The objective of this use case was to determine the users’ willingness to participate in the respective project. A participation workshop was conducted using qualitative and quantitative methods. Results show that since the participants were informed about the system solution for the first time, concern about cost and security were corollary. We conclude that the workshop served rather as instrument to inform and enlighten private end-users providing a baseline to compare results of further investigations. The forthcoming challenge is to ensure an ongoing participation process to raise acceptance and willingness to participate.
      562  3250
  • Publication
    Forecasting and Optimization Approaches Utilized for Simulating a Hybrid District Heating System
    The historically grown centralized energy system is undergoing massive changes due to the transformation from centralized energy production with large assets (e.g. fossil-thermal power plants) towards a sustainable, clean and decentralized energy system. This transformation is based on the inclusion of renewable energy sources (RESs) (e.g., wind and solar) into the classical systems. However, as the energy production stemming from RESs is extremely volatile and thus challenging to predict, new approaches have to be found in order to guarantee a successful integration of RESs into the existing infrastructure. In the Austrian state of Burgenland approximately 1,000 MW of wind capacity is available. As already mentioned above, the high volatility of wind energy together with forecast uncertainties hinders the optimal integration of this RES into the existing energy system. Furthermore, the successful deployment of wind turbines was based on an attractive but timely limited subsidy scheme with a fixed feed-in tariff. As these subsidies now come to an end for more and more wind turbines and future support systems will rely on market premiums and tendering models, new approaches and business models have to be devised in order to sustain the rapid transformation of the classical energy systems. In the research project HDH Demo in close cooperation with the city of Neusiedl am See, Burgenland, Austria, the aim is to integrate wind energy into the existing district heating grid of the city. This is realized by utilizing power-to-heat technologies, e.g., heat pumps. However, an economically feasible and successful integration is based on accurate forecasts for both, wind production and district heating demand as well as the actual energy prices. Therefore, this work evaluates the applied data-driven forecasting methods. In particular, ensemble approaches that combine autoregressive models with artificial intelligent techniques are used to exploit the strengths of different methods (e.g. stability, flexibility). To compare the model performance, an overview on the accuracy and efficiency of the ensembles by using appropriate score metrics (e.g. RMSE, MAPE, R²) is given. Furthermore, a mixed integer linear optimization model is presented for computing optimized schedules for the different components (e.g., heat pumps, energy storage units, biomass boiler) of the district heating grid. Together, these two approaches, forecasting and optimization, are used to investigate and evaluate different business models, which help to ensure the future market integration of wind production.
      202  5620
  • Publication
    Preferences on Home Energy Management Systems - A Study of Potentials for the Use of End User Flexibilities
    Due to the increase of volatile renewable energy resources, additional flexibility in the electricity system is necessary to ensure a technically and economically efficient network operation. To tap flexibilities like private storages, participatory developed and user-friendly technical solutions are essential. In this work, the acceptance and the market potential of a home energy management system with focus on i) grid optimization, ii) self-consumption optimization, and iii) additional functions for increased comfort is presented. This is determined by means of a representative survey. The main results show that the perceived usefulness and accessibility are the most important influence factors affecting the end user’s intention to use. Based on the given acceptance, the solution provides a market potential of one third of the users for an increased use of flexibilities in the investigated area.
      717  3979
  • Publication
    Dimensionen des subjektiven Sicherheitsempfindens Älterer in einer Grenzregion des Burgenlandes
    Der gegenständliche Artikel befasst sich mit der für das Burgenland speziellen Thematik des subjektiven Sicherheitsempfindens älterer Personen in einer Grenzregion des burgenländischen Bezirks Oberwart, der einen überproportional hohen Anteil Älterer an der Gesamtbevölkerung aufweist. Ältere Menschen aus der Zielregion empfinden subjektive Sicherheit nicht nur als Gefühl der Sicherheit, das zu Hause erfahren wird, sondern auch als jenes in lokalen Gegebenheiten außerhalb des Eigenheims. Unsicherheitsgefühle im direkten Wohnumfeld können sozial benachteiligte ältere Menschen in eine soziale Isolation treiben, was weitere gesundheitliche Folgen, wie beispielsweise die Beeinträchtigung ihrer Lebensqualität, mit sich bringt. Als mögliches burgenländisches Spezifikum spielen zudem Ängste vor Einbrüchen und KFZDiebstählen in Verbindung mit der Grenznähe der Region und fehlender Präsenz der Exekutive tragende Rollen zur Bestimmung des subjektiven Sicherheitsempfindens Älterer. Trotz dieser besonderen Komposition subjektiver Sicherheit ist das diesbezügliche Empfinden bei rund acht von zehn Älteren als hoch einzustufen. Um auch jenen Teil der älteren Menschen zu erreichen dessen Sicherheitsempfinden eher gering oder gering ist, sind weitere Untersuchungen zur Ableitung gezielter Maßnahmen erforderlich.
      265  268