Factors responsible for solar PV adoption at household level: A case of Lahore, Pakistan

The crisis in electricity generation sector of Pakistan is causing load shedding. All sectors including household-domestic, commercial and industrial activities get severely affected by such power outages which could be minimized by adopting modern technologies such as solar PV. The use of solar PV system in many countries has become a promising solution to meet energy needs but in Pakistan its usage at household level still remains largely untapped despite huge potential. This study identifies the determinants that influence the household's decisions regarding solar PV adoption in Lahore, Pakistan. For this, initially, a generic list of significant determinants was extracted from literature. Later, detailed interviews (based on persuasion attributes of Roger's theory of Innovation Diffusion) of both adopters and non-adopters of solar PV system were conducted at household level to rank the determinants on the basis of their significance in solar PV adoption decision. The household's adoption of solar PV system faced many barriers regardless of the fact that it exceeds in advantages as compared to other conventional sources of electricity. The cost of solar PV system appeared to be the most significant barrier in the diffusion of solar PV system. Additionally, the absence of adequate financial support by government for the installation of small solar PV systems at household level further intensified the adoption decisions. Other important barriers included difficulty of using all appliances at the same time and shortage of reliable vendors as well the technicians. While, environment friendly feature of solar PV system along with its availability in local market appeared as significant driver of diffusion at household level.