{"title":"Can citizen-financed photovoltaic projects support the energy transition? Experimental evidence from Swiss households","authors":"Fabienne Sierro , Corinne Moser","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104035","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Photovoltaics (PV) is a widely accepted technology that has a vital role to play in the energy transition. However, residential and community-owned installations are not accessible to everyone. Citizen-financed PV projects (CiFi PV) offer opportunities for tenants, individuals with limited upfront investment capacity, and homeowners with unsuitable rooftops to invest in PV installations.</div><div>To evaluate the attractiveness of CiFi PV and its influencing factors, we conducted two online experiments with representative samples of the Swiss population. The first experiment (<em>N</em> = 807) analyzed the impact of four project characteristics (minimal investment, pay-out model, rooftop type, provider) on perceived attractiveness of CiFi PV projects. The second experiment (<em>N</em> = 512) examined the effect of seven motivational frames and a control frame on the same dependent variable. Both studies also evaluated willingness to invest.</div><div>Over half of respondents were willing to invest in CiFi PV projects, primarily to support solar power and renewable energy generation. The main deterrent was uncertainty about the provider's trustworthiness. Neither project characteristics nor motivational frames significantly influenced perceived attractiveness. While financial and societal impact motivations were significant in the first experiment, the motivational frames in the second did not significantly affect attractiveness.</div><div>These results indicate that CiFi PV projects have a strong diffusion potential because they can effectively engage various kinds of individuals in terms of socio-demographic and motivational attributes. To do so, there must be more of such projects, and they must be made more visible by practitioners and policymakers. Enhancing regulatory framework conditions can further improve project development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"123 ","pages":"Article 104035"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Energy Research & Social Science","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629625001161","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/3/25 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Photovoltaics (PV) is a widely accepted technology that has a vital role to play in the energy transition. However, residential and community-owned installations are not accessible to everyone. Citizen-financed PV projects (CiFi PV) offer opportunities for tenants, individuals with limited upfront investment capacity, and homeowners with unsuitable rooftops to invest in PV installations.
To evaluate the attractiveness of CiFi PV and its influencing factors, we conducted two online experiments with representative samples of the Swiss population. The first experiment (N = 807) analyzed the impact of four project characteristics (minimal investment, pay-out model, rooftop type, provider) on perceived attractiveness of CiFi PV projects. The second experiment (N = 512) examined the effect of seven motivational frames and a control frame on the same dependent variable. Both studies also evaluated willingness to invest.
Over half of respondents were willing to invest in CiFi PV projects, primarily to support solar power and renewable energy generation. The main deterrent was uncertainty about the provider's trustworthiness. Neither project characteristics nor motivational frames significantly influenced perceived attractiveness. While financial and societal impact motivations were significant in the first experiment, the motivational frames in the second did not significantly affect attractiveness.
These results indicate that CiFi PV projects have a strong diffusion potential because they can effectively engage various kinds of individuals in terms of socio-demographic and motivational attributes. To do so, there must be more of such projects, and they must be made more visible by practitioners and policymakers. Enhancing regulatory framework conditions can further improve project development.
期刊介绍：
Energy Research & Social Science (ERSS) is a peer-reviewed international journal that publishes original research and review articles examining the relationship between energy systems and society. ERSS covers a range of topics revolving around the intersection of energy technologies, fuels, and resources on one side and social processes and influences - including communities of energy users, people affected by energy production, social institutions, customs, traditions, behaviors, and policies - on the other. Put another way, ERSS investigates the social system surrounding energy technology and hardware. ERSS is relevant for energy practitioners, researchers interested in the social aspects of energy production or use, and policymakers.
Energy Research & Social Science (ERSS) provides an interdisciplinary forum to discuss how social and technical issues related to energy production and consumption interact. Energy production, distribution, and consumption all have both technical and human components, and the latter involves the human causes and consequences of energy-related activities and processes as well as social structures that shape how people interact with energy systems. Energy analysis, therefore, needs to look beyond the dimensions of technology and economics to include these social and human elements.
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