Public perceptions and information gaps in solar energy in Texas

Abstract

Studying the behavioral aspects of the individual decision-making process is important in identifying and addressing barriers in the adoption of residential solar photovoltaic (PV). However, there is little systematic research focusing on these aspects of residential PV in Texas, an important, large, populous state, with a range of challenges in the electricity sector including increasing demand, shrinking reserve margins, constrained water supply, and challenging emissions reduction targets under proposed federal regulations. This paper aims to address this gap through an empirical investigation of a new survey-based dataset collected in Texas on solar energy perceptions and behavior. The results of this analysis offer insights into the perceptions and motivations influencing intentions and behavior toward solar energy in a relatively untapped market and help identify information gaps that could be targeted to alleviate key barriers to adopting solar, thereby enabling significant emissions reductions in the residential sector in Texas.

Agent-based modeling of energy technology adoption: Empirical integration of social, behavioral, economic, and environmental factors

“…An examination of the data for our empirical case (solar adoption in Austin, TX) supports this formulation. Further, a recent survey of non-adopters in Texas confirms that attitude and control variables regarding solar exhibit significant independence (Rai and Beck, 2015). In its standard form TPB is formulated as a static model of behavior: at a specific time, TPB maps measures of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control (PBC) onto intention, and intention onto actual behavior.…”

“…Note that pbc in TPB is a more general concept than just a measure of economic control over a decision. For solar, however, the perception of affordability (or lack thereof) is often cited as the most important barrier to adoption (Rai and Beck, 2015;Rai and Sigrin, 2013). Thus, for our purposes focusing on the economic component of behavioral control is justified.…”

Small is Big: Interactive Trumps Passive Information in Breaking Information Barriers and Impacting Behavioral Antecedents

“…This may not be high enough to activate changes in intention or behavior. Additionally, TPB models of SIquote using the pre-survey indicate that the behavioral antecedents account for approximately 28% of variance, which is further supported by models of the same variable in Rai & Beck (2015) showing 24% of variance explained (n = 417) [43]. Thus the effect responsible for the change in intentions and behavior in response to the passive information is likely explained by the remaining 70% of variance.…”

Small Is Big: Interactive Trumps Passive Information in Breaking Information Barriers and Impacting Behavioral Antecedents

“…These results suggest that more frequent, smaller amounts of information may be more effective for positively impacting solar PBC. This is noteworthy, since of the three TPB constructs PBC is the most important one to impact, based on prior TPB models that indicate that PBC has the greatest influence on intention and behavior for solar energy [43]. …”

“…This survey instrument is an expanded version of the survey instrument used in our previous research [43], which was developed using the guidelines for a TPB questionnaire [21,25,44]. Based on the prior results, we conducted a salient beliefs survey and further refined the survey instrument, keeping the original questions and adding more.…”