301 2019 eng preprint 1 2019-12-19 2019-12-22 -- Home energy storage (HES) poses a promising option to foster flexible electricity demand and grid-stabilising self-supply. Understanding the characteristics of potential storage adopters and their motives for adopting is essential to enable targeted measures to promote diffusion. This paper presents an in-depth analysis of motivational and psychological factors as well as product characteristics that affect the willingness to adopt domestic energy storage. Based on a selective sample of solar panel owners as the main energy storage target group, we find that potential adopters differ systematically in their evaluation of economic and non-economic characteristics of home energy storage. Using correlation-based average linkage clustering, we identify four distinct types of storage adopters: finance-oriented, independence-oriented, idealistic and multilaterally oriented households. Our findings emphasise that segment-specific policy strategies and support mechanisms are needed to stimulate HES adoption to pave the way for a sustainable energy system. under review 2 Creative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International Grimm Veronika Sandra Kretschmer Simon Mehl eng uncontrolled Energy storage, Consumer segmentation, Adoption decision, Innovation diffusion Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg B08 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-trr154/files/301/SWARM_EP_TRR.pdf