The impact of income on household solar panel uptake: Exploring diverse results using Australian data

Understanding mixed results for the impact of income on household solar-panel uptake is important for several reasons. Income is often a central feature of economic studies or a key control for social studies. Furthermore, policy makers are increasingly relying on income to determine solar-subsidy eligibility. We use a large sample of Australian households to suggest reasons for mixed results. For a comparative purpose, we show a negative relationship between income and solar-panel uptake for a regression with 318 observations, where these observations are area-aggregated averages of underlying household-level survey data. A similar model with 31,828 household observations from the same household-level survey data suggests a positive relationship. This gradually disappears when adding key controls. When assessing possible non-linearity, we find a negative association between income and solar-panel uptake at high-income levels. Interestingly, this is primarily true for higher-wealth households. Our analysis suggests an important shift in solar policies is needed - from a singular focus on income toward wealth or dual income-wealth thresholds.

Automated summary

Understanding the mixed results of the impact of income on household solar-panel uptake is crucial for economic and social studies as well as policy-making. This study finds that different data samples yield different results, with an inconsistent relationship between income and solar-panel uptake. However, high-income households tend to exhibit a negative association, especially those with higher wealth. Therefore, a shift in solar policies is needed, focusing not only on income but also on wealth or dual income-wealth thresholds.