Purpose The solar energy sector has been growing with dramatic reduction in commercial pricing, improved efficiencies and improved deployments/usage conveniences. The purpose of this study is to understand the drivers of the purchase intent for rooftop (RT) solar. This will enable policymakers to improve the penetration of this new and promising green technology. Design/methodology/approach This research leverages the framework of unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2) to identify and build a quantitative approach to identify factors (and their relative impact on) the purchase intent of a domestic RT solar buyer. The 400 respondents’ field data were collected in Bangalore (a high RT solar penetration region) and Delhi NCR (relatively lower RT solar penetration region). Findings The exploratory factor analysis study revealed that the consumers’ purchase intention of RT Solar is shaped by seven main factors, namely, environmental concerns, social beliefs, hedonic motivation, performance expectancy, price value, self-efficacy and effort expectancy, and that these factors explain 79.2 per cent of the field data. This study finds that social beliefs followed by effort expectance concerns are key factors explaining approximately 20 per cent of the purchase intent each, while unit change in price value beliefs explain about 18 per cent of the purchase intent. Practical implications Suggested policy measures include building on strengthening emergence of local solar evangelist groups in the communities and easing effort expectance items (e.g. building legal, regulatory frameworks and financial tools for solar penetration models such as renewable energy services companies). Originality/value This paper is the first attempt to model the consumer behavior of the Indian RT solar photovoltaic buyer leveraging the UTAUT2.

Purpose Rooftop (RT) solar in India has grown to 4.4 GW by the end of March 2019 – but it is still under-performing vs national solar mission target of 40 GW. This paper aims to understand the drivers of the purchase intent (PI) for RT solar will enable policymakers to improve the penetration of this new and promising green technology. Design/methodology/approach This paper builds a structural equation modeling model for triggers of the PI of a residential RT solar photo-voltaic (SPV) buyer. The empirical study conducted in Delhi/national capital region of Delhi and Bangalore validates the role of the Unified Theory of Acceptance & Use of Technology (2) constructs in the PI of the residential sector RT solar buyer in India. It also explores a few myths – prior green habits have no relationship with the PI and self-efficacy has been dropped in the final path analysis to improve model fit. Findings This research explores the myth that financial self-efficacy – or prospect’s perception of his capability to fund (through own or credit finance) – will mean that the prospect is likely to be more conducive to an SPV purchase in the city contexts studied. It is more relevant for policymakers to work on factors such as social influence/ beliefs, effort expectancy and price-value beliefs. Other relevant triggers are performance expectancy, hedonic motivation and environmental beliefs. Originality/value This is the first Indian research leveraging multi-city survey of actual households build an empirically verified consumer behavior model for RT SPV in the residential sector leveraging the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 constructs.

Solar energy has shown considerable promise world over, and the sector has been growing with dramatic reduction in commercial pricing, improved efficiencies and improved deployments/usage conveniences. Rooftop solar in India has grown to 4.4 GW by the end March 2019—but it’s still underperforming versus National Solar Mission (NSM) target of 40 GW. Clearly, India has a significant need to improve the penetration of the rooftop solar. Recent studies in the Indian context have shown the role of social influence as a key enabler of the purchase intent for rooftop solar. Studies have also shown the relative prioritization between different opinion leader categories. A relevant question is to understand the triggers of pro-rooftop solar photovoltaic (RT SPV) recommendations from ecosystem players like architects. This article builds an empirical approach to model the factors of behaviour intent (to recommend RT SPV) of the architects. The field study is conducted in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) suburbs of Gurgaon and Faridabad. Policy implications are: To build focused penetration of communities, leveraging trusted peer networks, instead of a spray-and-pray approach. To build a solar champion branding (like green building certification) and a competence building programme to leverage natural position as a potential opinion leader while building one’s home. This research is part of the first Indian empirical study leveraging multi-city survey of architects and end-users to build a statistically verified consumer behaviour model using unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2) theory for end-user purchase intent and recommendation intent by architects for RT SPV installation by their clients in the residential sector.