Towards volatile and uncertain energy markets - quantifying costs for German residential Prosumers

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine led to unseen disruptions in the global energy markets since the end of 2021. While German households could cut costs due to saving energy, residential energy installations like photovoltaic systems, battery home storage systems, and heat pumps are gaining traction. However, the benefit of those technologies during the energy crisis and beyond has not been quantified yet. Therefore, in this study, we benchmark residential investments for different prosumers and analyze recent political incentives and subsidies. We observe that at the climax of the energy crisis households with a heat pump could save 1,850 € and reduce equivalent CO2 emissions by 250 g/kWh annually. Politically introduced price breaks on electricity and natural gas do not reverse this advantage. Furthermore, installing a larger solar photovoltaic system and owning an electric vehicle always proves to be economically and ecologically beneficial.