Regional difference of residential solar panel diffusion in Queensland, Australia

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the regional difference of residential solar panel adoption has raised the concern on energy justice and also elicited a fundamental question on how the distribution of access to solar energy services should occur in the society. Focusing on Queensland, a sunshine state in Australia, this study used the generalized Bass diffusion model to investigate and compare how, why, and at what rate solar panels spread in densely and sparsely populated areas. The results highlight that the spreading of solar panels lies in the imitation effect, in which a household’s solar adoption is susceptible to the behaviors or comments of its neighbors, and this effect is stronger in highly populated areas. Furthermore, the highly populated areas are also more sensitive to the market price change. In contrast, there is a lack of imitation effect and market sensitivity in the sparsely populated areas. For policymakers, it is necessary to consider these regional differences in the solar energy development; a stronger promulgation agenda is needed from the government to cultivate the adoption culture in those sparsely populated areas.

KEYWORDS:

• Solar panel
• regional difference
• technology diffusion
• generalized Bass model
• energy justice