Gross, Christian | Austria
Christian Gross is a student at the Karl-Franzens-University of Graz. He has been studying Environmental System Sciences with the special field of Business Administration since October 2004. In June 2007 he completed the bachelor’s programme and since October 2007 he has been proceeding with the master’s programme of the very same field of study. In October 2007 he also enrolled himself in the bachelor’s programme of Business Administration at the same University.
He completed this second bachelor’s degree in April 2009. From the beginning of July 2008 until the end of November 2008 he spent a term abroad at the University of Tasmania in Hobart (Australia). Besides his studies Christian did some interesting internships: In summer 2006 for instance he worked at the Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture in Graz, where he assisted at the project “Network of Sustainable Lifestyles”. In the following summer he was an intern at the department of energy trade and electricity industry of the KELAG Group, one of the leading enterprises in providing energy in Austria.
Project at IAS-STS: Master’s thesis: Diffusion and adoption of solar thermal applications in Graz
Solar thermal applications have always been fairly popular in Austria, especially in Styria. This success of solar heaters can be explained by a self-construction movement with a comprehensive diffusion strategy and the effort of an atypical group of adopters. However, self-building is a strategy which will only activate a limited number of prospective users, even if there was an extraordinary success in the Austrian solar case so far. Subject to these limitations, the environmental office of the city of Graz wants to address the question how to reach other groups of adopters by a contemporary diffusion strategy. To identify potential key aspects of this strategy in my Master’s thesis, I will examine topics such as:
- Technical rudiments of solar thermal systems
- Profitability of solar thermal applications in comparison to other forms of water heating
- Potentially interesting categories of (local) buildings for solar thermal applications
- Willingness of enterprises to sponsor solar thermal systems