Solar Motivation Data 2023

Although a small body of research has examined the motivational foundations of homeowners’ decisions to adopt rooftop solar panels, in this research we compare adoptive and non-adoptive homeowners (N=824) across a spectrum of values and motives to identify the most salient predictors of solar adoption within various demographic and political strata. Results of hierarchical logistic regressions reveal that altruism negatively predicts solar adoption while both autonomous (i.e., internal) and controlled (i.e., image and status based) motivation toward the environment are positive predictors. Importantly, however, these main effects are qualified by several key interactions. In particular, although altruism negatively links to adoption for younger homeowners, it is positively associated with adoption for older homeowners. Similarly, controlled motivation predicts solar adoption for both younger and higher income homeowners, but it is not a predictor for older and lower income homeowners. In addition, autonomous motivation and education predict solar adoption for Democrats, but not for Republicans. We highlight the importance of assessing interactions between demographics, on one hand, and motives and values, on the other, in order to reveal differences in the motivations of different types of adopters. These findings underscore the importance of more targeted solar policy, marketing, and public messaging.