New avenues for community solar adoption research: A qualitative comparative analysis of ten U.S. states

IF 3.8 3区经济学 Q3 ENERGY & FUELS Utilities Policy Pub Date : 2025-03-08 DOI:10.1016/j.jup.2025.101914

Dong Min Kim , Shan Zhou , Adam M. Wellstead

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Abstract

Community solar presents an opportunity for every household and business to harness the advantages of solar energy. In the community solar adoption literature, qualitative and case-specific investigations have suggested potential adoption factors, such as related policies, solar technical potential, and socioeconomic measures. However, limited effort has been devoted to evaluating the complex dynamics of these causal conditions, let alone the development of empirical evidence. This paper fills these gaps using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to examine the dynamics of U.S. community solar adoption factors. The application of fsQCA, grounded in set-theoretic principles and truth-table analysis, enables a comprehensive evaluation of the various configurations of conditions that contribute to community solar adoption among the top ten adopting states. The results show that, in the most active states, adoption paths vary in government liberalism. For conservative states, the primary factors were a non-wealthy GDP per capita and strong solar potential. On the other hand, liberal states commonly had strong solar potential and high electricity prices as their common factors for adopting community solar.

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来源期刊

Utilities Policy ENERGY & FUELS-ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

CiteScore

6.80

自引率

10.00%

发文量

审稿时长

66 days

期刊介绍： Utilities Policy is deliberately international, interdisciplinary, and intersectoral. Articles address utility trends and issues in both developed and developing economies. Authors and reviewers come from various disciplines, including economics, political science, sociology, law, finance, accounting, management, and engineering. Areas of focus include the utility and network industries providing essential electricity, natural gas, water and wastewater, solid waste, communications, broadband, postal, and public transportation services. Utilities Policy invites submissions that apply various quantitative and qualitative methods. Contributions are welcome from both established and emerging scholars as well as accomplished practitioners. Interdisciplinary, comparative, and applied works are encouraged. Submissions to the journal should have a clear focus on governance, performance, and/or analysis of public utilities with an aim toward informing the policymaking process and providing recommendations as appropriate. Relevant topics and issues include but are not limited to industry structures and ownership, market design and dynamics, economic development, resource planning, system modeling, accounting and finance, infrastructure investment, supply and demand efficiency, strategic management and productivity, network operations and integration, supply chains, adaptation and flexibility, service-quality standards, benchmarking and metrics, benefit-cost analysis, behavior and incentives, pricing and demand response, economic and environmental regulation, regulatory performance and impact, restructuring and deregulation, and policy institutions.