Diffusion of RT Solar PV in Suburbs of Delhi/NCR, India: Triggers of Architect Recommendation Intent

Abstract

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.

Problems of adoption of solar power and subsequent switching behavior: an exploration in India

“…The significant (þve) effect of social influence on the consumer's behavioral intentions (H3) signifies that there is a strong social factor in terms of indicating status which may work in favor of the consumers to use solar power generators. This supports the findings related to the effects of social norms on the adoption of alternative energy sources (Wang et al, 2011;Aggarwal et al, 2019aAggarwal et al, , 2019bAggarwal et al, , 2020.…”

“…Thereby it addresses the call for research in the topic of alternative energy adoption exploring the consumer-related variables (Crosbie, 2006;Makovich, 2011). Our findings find support for the relevance of technology acceptance (Kapoor and Dwivedi, 2020;Aggarwal et al, 2019aAggarwal et al, , 2019bAggarwal et al, , 2020. The study also supports that the UTAUT constructs, which are mainly psychological/attitudinal, would have a strong influence on the intentions to use technology (Lee, Kozar and Larsen, 2003;Yang and Yoo, 2004;Venkatesh, et al, 2012).…”

“…In the present study, we try to explain the adoption and switch over to solar energy sources using the TAM. The TAM and its augmentations such as the UTAUT (and UTAUT 2) have been the most applied theories to explain the adoption of alternative energy as it is more advanced than the other models (Aggarwal et al, 2019a(Aggarwal et al, , 2019b(Aggarwal et al, , 2020Anthony et al, 2020). Hence, we use this in the present study.…”

“…While, a significant amount of research has explored both the micro and macro-economic factors that may influence the adoption of solar power (Carstens and Cunha, 2018), there has been relatively less investigation into the consumer level factors that influence solar power adoption at the household level. Researchers in this area have explored the role of the UTAUT constructs in solar power adoption at the household level (Kapoor and Dwivedi, 2020;Aggarwal et al, 2019aAggarwal et al, , 2019bAggarwal et al, , 2020. All the studies have found interesting additions (other than the influence of adoption-related factors) to influence household level adoption of solar energy such as the perceived price, availability of funds and recommendation by the architect.…”

“…For example, Mizobuchi and Takeuchi (2013) investigated the effect of financial influencers, such as income and incentives and non-financial influencers, such as social norms, on household electricity-saving behavior in Japan. The factors at the consumer level, mainly related to consumer attitudes and psychology have been explored relatively less (Kapoor and Dwivedi, 2020;Aggarwal et al, 2019aAggarwal et al, , 2019bAggarwal et al, , 2020. However, the mentioned studies have been restricted to adoption intentions and purchase intentions and not the subsequent switching behavior.…”