Behavioral Determinants of Prosumers’ Efficiency-Enhancing Changes in Energy Consumption Patterns

One of the key challenges of the contemporary solar energy market is matching supply and demand. The demand side of this problem largely depends on the difficult-to-predict, individualized, numerous, and dispersed behaviors of prosumers. With this in mind, the main objective of the study is to identify the structural relationships between types of prosumer behavior and the motivators encouraging prosumers to modify their existing habits. Beyond this main objective, the study also assessed prosumers’ perception of positive and negative motivators and identified patterns of prosumer behavior regarding energy consumption following the installation of a photovoltaic system. These objectives were pursued through a questionnaire-based survey conducted on a representative sample of 754 Polish prosumers. The analysis of the results employed descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and structural equation modeling. The results clearly show that positive incentives—rather than orders and penalties—are more strongly associated with the modification of energy consumption patterns. Prosumers place equally high value on increasing energy independence and on financial savings. The surveyed prosumers predominantly declare a responsible and adaptive attitude toward solar energy consumption, manifested in monitoring their consumption and adjusting their behavioral patterns toward maintaining or reducing overall energy use. Fewer prosumers report the rebound effect or passive consumption patterns than report adaptive or responsible behavior. Only positive motivators (cost reduction, increased independence, and participation in climate protection) prove useful in modifying existing consumption patterns, with responsible and adaptive prosumers showing the greatest potential for change under their influence. Negative motivators, in the form of penalties or the absence of incentives, are not significantly associated with any of the identified prosumer attitudes. The results provide practical implications for energy policy design in developing and emerging economies.