Profiling photovoltaic users : an analysis of the Maltese households

Abstract

Climate change awareness and the need to reduce emissions have shifted the attention of policy makers on the possibility of using renewable energy as a clean alternative. In recent decades, governments in the European Union and other developed countries in the world have encouraged the use of photovoltaic systems as a source of renewable energy through various energy programs and policy tools. However, many countries focused their efforts on diversifying the energy production of power plants. Malta, the EU’s smallest country, is one of the few countries to have targeted its policy efforts to induce higher household demand for photovoltaic systems. By 2011, over 3,000 households had adopted a photovoltaic system or 3 percent of freehold owned dwellings in Malta. This figure is continuously increasing as further schemes are being implemented. This dissertation takes an entire country dimension to build a profile of the type of household most likely to invest in a photovoltaic system. The study models household behaviour as a function of moral and economic motives subject to a number of constraints and sets out to test whether these are relevant determinants of uptake. The dataset is created by merging data from different sources and comprises information on the actual uptake of PV and demographics for all localities of Malta. The results show that the determinants of PV take-up are trust in policymakers, the length of the period to redeem the initial investment, the availability of roof space and income. Interestingly, environmental motives do not have any weighting in the decision process of households. The findings of this study provide important insights on the extent to which households could contribute to the generation of renewable energy, and how to identify them. This is useful for countries which so far have not considered households as a main source of demand for photovoltaic systems.