IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cam/camdae/1357.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Social Effects in the Diffusion of solar Photovoltaic Technology in the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Laura-Lucia Richter

Abstract

The main research question in this paper is whether the installation rate of solar pv technology is affected by social spillovers from spatially close households. The installed base, defined as the cumulative number of solar v installations within a neighbourhood by the end of a particular month, serves as a measure for the social effects of interest. Motivated by the technology-specific time lag between the decision to adopt a solar Pv panel and the completion of the installation, the third lag of the installed base serves as main regressor of interest in the panel data model employed. The results suggest small, but positive and significant social effects that can be exploited to promote adoption: at the average installation rate of 0.7 installations per 1,000 owner-occupied households, one more solar PV panel in the postcode district increases the installation rate three months later by one percent. At the average number of 6,629 owner—occupied households within a postcode district, this implies an increase in the number of new installations in the neighbourhood by 0.005. Projects involving a high number of installations could hence promote diffusion. A major limitation of the model is that social spillovers are assumed to spread within defined neighbourhoods, only. spatial econometric methods could allow for social effects across these borders.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura-Lucia Richter, 2013. "Social Effects in the Diffusion of solar Photovoltaic Technology in the UK," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1357, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:cam:camdae:1357
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/research-files/repec/cam/pdf/cwpe1357.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    social effects; installed base; product adoption; diffusion; solar PV technology; micro-generation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C19 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Other
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • Q21 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cam:camdae:1357. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jake Dyer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.