The motivational drivers behind consumer preferences for regional electricity-Results of a choice experiment in Southern Germany

In response to climate change, Germany, like many other countries, has steadily expanded its electricity gen-eration from renewables. Meanwhile, the ongoing trend towards regional products in other sectors raises questions regarding household consumers' preferences for regional electricity tariffs. While a few studies have concluded that regionality is a product attribute consumers prefer, little is known about the factors underlying these preferences. We fill this gap using insights from a choice experiment and additional motivational data from 777 (potential) customers of a municipal energy supplier in Southwest Germany. We determine both re-spondents' preferences and examine the role of environmental and regional motivations in explaining these preferences using a sophisticated statistical model. Our results show that, on average, the share of regional generation is the second most important attribute after a tariff's price. Notably, consumer preferences for regional electricity are driven by regional rather than environmental motivations. Results on consumer prefer-ences become more nuanced when respondents are assigned to distinct clusters, with three of the five clusters attributing moderate to strong importance to regional electricity generation. Again, above-average regional motivations underpin these preferences. We discuss policy implications arising from these findings.