Researchers from Yale University and the University of Connecticut examined the main motivations that lead people to install solar panels on the roofs of their homes. The study, conducted in various residential neighborhoods in a city in Connecticut, U.S., and published in the *Journal of Economic Geography*, found that the reason is simply the desire to be seen as an environmentally conscious person in society.
Who chooses to install solar panels on their roof? You might assume that the people who do so are probably fairly wealthy (an average installation can cost around $35,000, before tax credits or other incentives), and most certainly politically liberal. They can afford it, and it aligns with their values as well.
According to a new study, however, politics and income may not be such important factors after all. By examining the spread of residential solar photovoltaic installations in Connecticut, two researchers at Yale and the University of Connecticut found instead that the single most important factor determining whether a given home installed solar was peer influence—specifically, whether other homes nearby had recently done so. In other words, much like buying a Prius, it seems that installing solar has a lot to do with how you want people around you to perceive you. “People have called it ‘green envy’ before—where you want to be green so that you can effectively show off your greenness,” says Yale’sKenneth Gillingham, a professor at the School of Forestry and one of the study’s authors.
The study, which was just published in the *Journal of Economic Geography*, was conducted by Gillingham in collaboration with Marcello Graziano of the University of Connecticut. Using data from Connecticut’sClean Energy Finance and Investment Authority, which provides incentives for solar installations, they geocoded the locations of 3,843 residential solar photovoltaic units in the state between 2005 and the end of September 2013, linking each one to a“block group”as designated by the U.S. Census. (In general, a block group consists of between 600 and 3,000 people.) They also recorded the date the initial application for an installation was submitted.
And hence the dramatic finding: The installation of one additional rooftop solar photovoltaic project within the past six months in a given area increased the average number of installations within a half-mile radius by 0.44, or nearly half. As the spatial area expanded, meanwhile, the influence of neighboring solar installations steadily decreased—a finding quite consistent with a theory of peer influence. Within a one-mile radius, the installation of a single solar panel in the previous six months increased the number of installations by 0.39, and within a one- to four-mile radius, by 0.12. This aligns with previous research by Gillingham and a colleague in California, which found that within a given ZIP code, one new solar installation increased the likelihood of another by 0.78 percent.
But while previous installations seemed to have a major influence on future ones, Graziano and Gillingham failed to find nearly as much of an influence from other socioeconomic and demographic factors. These included income, political party affiliation, and the unemployment rate. “I was expecting it to all be the wealthy communities,” says Gillingham. “Pretty much, solar is going to be in the wealthiest areas of Connecticut. But the pattern wasn’t like that at all.” It’s not that a lot of poor people were installing solar panels, of course—but a lot of middle-income people were.
source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/10/23/study-solar-energy-isnt-just-for-rich-liberals-any-more/?Post +generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost
