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This paper compares the energy consumption of elderly and non-elderly households, recognizing the ever-increasing importance of the aging population for energy policy. Decisions of the domestic (in-home) and transport (out-of-home) sectors at the household level are jointly incorporated by building a multivariate Hierarchical Archimedean Copula model with intra-sector and inter-sector dependencies. Data from a life-oriented behavioral survey in Japan are used, which includes 532 elderly households and 340 non-elderly households. A variety of life-related factors, together with built environment factors, are introduced into the above model. Modeling analysis results show that inter- and intra-sector dependencies are heterogeneous across households in terms of these factors. It is found that almost equal numbers of influential factors are sensitive and insensitive to age-based sample segmentation. Various similarities and dissimilarities across energy types between elderly and non-elderly households are revealed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on China, which has a special household registration system (called hukou ), this study examines the likely effects of the China’s National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014–2020) on rural migrant workers’ intentions to reside permanently in cities and their future energy consumption preference. Questionnaire surveys were conducted in 2014 and 2015 among rural migrant workers and residents with a hukou in three cities (985 migrants and 671 residents with a hukou). Analysis results show that 39% of migrant workers intended to reside permanently in cities under the aforementioned plan, and the current energy consumption of residents with a hukou is 1.2–4.0 times higher than that of rural migrant workers. Further analyses based on structural equation models confirm that migrants’ current less-satisfied life experience and lower level of viability in cities hinder them to become a permanent urban resident. Unexpectedly, migrants’ permanent residence intentions do not affect their future energy consumption preference, which is however mostly affected by their confidence and barriers to become a permanent resident, especially future concerns about health and lack of social security in their current daily life. Finally, it is argued that studies on rural migrants should pay more attention to capability-concerned and life-oriented aspects, which are useful to derive important insights into cross-sectoral energy policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the direct rebound effect, which indicates the degree of increase in travel demand caused by the increasing vehicle efficiency in the private passenger transport sector. Different from the usual effect, here the direct rebound effect is not assumed to be the same for the entire population. To determine when rebound occurs and who is suffering, two types of triggers, which may lead to different rebound effects among the population, are investigated: vehicle efficiency and travel demand. The quantile regression method is adopted to measure the rebound effect and differentiate it with respect to vehicle efficiency and travel demand. Considering that the rebound effect might have diverse performance in different cities, a comparative analysis between Beijing and Tokyo is conducted. Drawing on the data collected in a household energy consumption survey in Beijing and Tokyo in 2009, the models are estimated and the results reveal significant heterogeneity of the direct rebound effect both in Beijing and Tokyo, but with a much more complicated form in Beijing. For travelers in Beijing, rebound only occurs to those people whose cars are less efficient than 15–18 km/L, and the magnitude of the rebound effect is between 31.8% and 60.2%, varying across travelers with different travel demands. In comparison, in Tokyo, only travelers with low and medium kilometers traveled have the rebound effect, and the effect is inversely related to their travel demand, ranging between 17.1% and 92.3%. The above-identified inter-city and intra-city difference in the rebound effect could contribute to the population and a spatially specific policy scheme in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household decisions on the energy consumption behavior are with regard to the situations that multiple end-uses (e.g., domestic appliances and vehicles) are simultaneously hold and consumed. To deal with this issue, the multiple discrete–continuous models are the best choices from the behavioral perspective. This study compared two types of utility theory-based multiple discrete–continuous models, which are widely applied in the literature: multiple discrete–continuous extreme value (MDCEV) model and the improved resource allocation model based on the multi-linear function (RAM-MLF). A household energy consumption survey was carried out in Beijing in 2010, and the comparative analysis on the performance of these two models is carried out based on the survey data. Results show that the overall performance of RAM-MLF is slightly superior to the MDCEV model due to the incorporation of the inter-end-use interaction and the relative importance of end uses. Moreover, the utility structure by using the satiation parameters to represent the diminishing marginal utility with the increasing consumption shows better fitness than the structure only using the logarithmic function. These findings can be contributed to understand the household energy consumption behavior, while suggest the potential improvement of the model structure, which is mainly focused on the utility form and the decision making mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Direct and indirect rebound effects for private vehicle in Japan are investigated. [•] SP-off-RP method is used to identify the existence and distribution of rebounds. [•] 34% of respondents have the reallocation choices which cause rebound effect. [•] Rebound effects from vehicles are more possible to occur in domestic sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Prevalent quality assessment of drying materials with solar energy was reviewed. • The potential application of solar drying for high-quality dried products was introduced. • The physical and chemical mechanisms of quality transformation during drying process were clarified. Solar energy is a green and renewable clean energy. Using this as main or auxiliary energy to dry agricultural materials could reduce energy consumption and improve product quality. In the drying process of agricultural materials, not only drying technologies but also drying parameters would affect the quality of materials. This paper provides a guided technological tour on solar drying through a literature research. An overview about the drying technologies to evaluate the drying quality, such as traditional sun drying, solar tunnel drying, solar greenhouse drying, solar-assisted drying system, is presented to demonstrate advances and application potential of solar drying. Finally, variable temperature drying is preliminarily proposed and tested to verify its superiority of energy saving and drying quality improvement. The literature research in this paper gives a reference on the effective application of solar drying through specifying the mechanisms of quality transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]