Renewables in the Energy Transition: Evidence on Solar Home Systems and Lighting-Fuel Choice in Kenya

Lay, Jann; Ondraczek, Janosch; Stoever, Jana

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2143123

Cited by 29 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Past research on household technology adoption shows that the education level of the decision maker has a positive influence on take‐up of the newly presented technology. Recent research on household solar energy use has mostly not considered education (Komatsu, Kaneko, & Ghosh, ; Rebane & Barham, ) but a study on Kenyan households shows that there is a weak positive effect of education (Lay et al, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The literature suggests that the education level of the respondent has a positive impact on technology adoption (Schultz, 1963;Weir & Knight, 2004). There is a limited body of literature on the impact of education on solar technology, but available studies suggest that the education level of the household head has a weak positive effect (Lay et al, 2013;Smith & Urpelainen, 2014). Household heads that have received adequate education may be able to better understand the benefits of using solar lanterns, compared to those who are not.…”

Section: Hypotheses On Heterogeneous Treatment Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One promising option to improve basic household lighting in India and other developing countries is the use of solar lanterns and similar technologies (Lay, Ondraczek, & Stoever, 2013;Obeng, Evers, Akuffo, Braimah, & Brew-Hammond, 2008;Samad, Khandker, Asaduzzaman, & Yunus, 2013;Smith & Urpelainen, 2014). Rural households that do not have access to the electricity grid or are underserved by it stand to gain from the distributed generation of solar power.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Willingness to Pay for Solar Lanterns: Does the Trial Period Play a Role?

Yoon

Urpelainen

Kandlikar

2016

Review of Policy Research

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Where electricity access is limited, solar lanterns are a viable and relatively inexpensive source of basic lighting for households. However, the creation of commercially viable business models for solar lanterns is difficult because the customers are poor and make decisions under tight liquidity constraints. To understand the economics of technology adoption in the case of solar lanterns, we conduct a field experiment on willingness to pay (WTP) for solar lanterns in rural Uttar Pradesh. Applying the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak method of eliciting WTP, we evaluate the ability of a trial period and postponed payment to increase sales. We find no evidence for the effectiveness of the trial period and only weak evidence for the positive effect of postponed payment. Overall, WTP for the product among the customers is low. There is no clear evidence for concerns about the uncertain quality of the product, liquidity constraints, or present-bias. In this context, policies to subsidize very small solar lanterns would not correct a market failure, as people appear to have only a limited interest in the product.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Hypotheses On Heterogeneous Treatment Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Willingness to Pay for Solar Lanterns: Does the Trial Period Play a Role?

Yoon

Urpelainen

Kandlikar

2016

Review of Policy Research

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“…For example, a stream of empirical research has focused on understanding the adoption process for clean energy products in developing economies, such as lighting fuels in Kenya (Lay et al. ), solar lanterns in India (Yoon et al. ), and cookstoves in Uganda (Levine et al.…”

Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although most existing research is in the form of conceptual discussions and case studies (Reichert andTrivella 2015, Urpelainen andYoon 2015) or theoretical models (Uppari et al 2019), there are some related empirical applications. For example, a stream of empirical research has focused on understanding the adoption process for clean energy products in developing economies, such as lighting fuels in Kenya (Lay et al 2013), solar lanterns in India (Yoon et al 2016), and cookstoves in Uganda (Levine et al 2018).…”

Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

How Do Usage and Payment Behavior Interact in Rent‐to‐Own Business Models? Evidence from Developing Economies

Guajardo

2019

Production and Operations Management

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The diffusion of technological innovations in developing economies has been facilitated by the use of rent‐to‐own business models, which give flexibility to customers by allowing them to make incremental payments over time. Understanding the implications of this flexibility is a fundamental problem for an increasing number of firms operating in these markets. In this study, we empirically analyze how consumer usage and payment behaviors interact in an application of rent‐to‐own to the distribution of solar lamps in developing countries. By exploiting the longitudinal variation in the data—and hence accounting for intrinsic differences between customers—the analysis led to three main insights. First, higher usage rates lowered the probability of late payments by customers. Our characterization of this engagement effect enhances existing knowledge of the drivers of payment behavior in these environments. Second, customers often “bundled” payments, making advance payments for future product access. We showed that bundling the initial payment led to lower usage rates (bundling effect), suggesting that firms may not benefit from advance payments upfront, and that they should closely track usage patterns from these customers. Finally, we showed that first‐period usage information can improve the accuracy of predictive models of default and that observing usage rates in subsequent periods does not lead to further improvements. Overall, the analysis highlights the importance for firms of jointly tracking and analyzing payment and usage behavior by customers, particularly in initial stages of the adoption process.

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Determinants of household adoption of solar energy technology in Seychelles in a context of 100% access to electricity

Etongo

Naidu

2022

Discov Sustain

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Seychelles is among four countries in the African continent with 100% access to electricity, of which over 90% of the energy is generated from fossil fuels. The energy transition is a crucial enabler of sustainable development and climate resilience. Therefore, this study seeks to understand the determinants of solar PV uptake based on a stratified random sample of 130 households on Mahe Island, Seychelles. We applied logistic regression and descriptive statistics to analyze the driving factors of a household decision regarding the adoption of a solar PV system. Results indicated that access to credit and monthly household income influenced the adoption of solar PV systems at the 1% significance level. Independent variables such as gender, age, and education of household heads, including family size that were significant in other studies, were not significant in the current study. Cost-saving (100%), energy security (91.7%), and environmentally friendly perceptions (76.7%), and access to loans (56.7%), were chief among the motivational drivers of the 60 households that had adopted solar PV systems. Whereas, for the non-adopters, the four most essential barriers cited were cheap electricity (82.9%), high initial cost (65.7%), existing loans (52.9%), and long payback time (40.0%). For the communal approach to solar PV systems in Seychelles to be successful, the adoption barriers that occur at the level of households should be considered.

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Renewables in the Energy Transition: Evidence on Solar Home Systems and Lighting-Fuel Choice in Kenya

Cited by 29 publications

References 23 publications

Willingness to Pay for Solar Lanterns: Does the Trial Period Play a Role?

Willingness to Pay for Solar Lanterns: Does the Trial Period Play a Role?

How Do Usage and Payment Behavior Interact in Rent‐to‐Own Business Models? Evidence from Developing Economies

Determinants of household adoption of solar energy technology in Seychelles in a context of 100% access to electricity

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