Which farmers adopt solar energy? A regression analysis to explain adoption decisions over time

Farmers can play an important role in the critical renewable energy transition by generating solar energy. Farmers' adoption of a solar photovoltaic (PV) system results from a complex and interdependent array of technical, political, social, and economic factors. Under the regime of a covenant on energy and green-house gas emissions, the evolution of perceptions and responses to solar PV was monitored for a panel of 279 Dutch farmers in a unique series of surveys in 2015, 2018, and 2020. We observed that the will-ingness to reduce greenhouse gas emissions steadily increased from 35% of the farmers in 2015 to 82% in 2020, while the perceptions toward solar PV adoption among Dutch farmers fluctuated over this period. We examined Dutch farmers' determinants of solar PV uptake through multiple regression analyses. Consistent with the literature, our results indicate that behavioural intentions, the perceived importance of renewable energy, and farmers' innovativeness are the most critical determinants for solar PV adop-tion. Many farmers mentioned the decreased payback time as the most crucial motive to adopt solar PV. We argue that a stable long-term policy for renewable energy, as implemented in the Netherlands, creates attractive economic conditions for solar PV adoption. At the same time, the payback time is a crit-ical factor in shaping farmers' intentions and behaviour. We recommend more extensive research using panel datasets of farmers, while we also acknowledge the difficulty of obtaining high-quality panel data, which underlines the uniqueness of our analysis.(c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

Farmers in the Netherlands showed an increasing willingness to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adopt solar photovoltaic (PV) systems from 2015 to 2020. The determinants for solar PV adoption among Dutch farmers include behavioural intentions, the perceived importance of renewable energy, and farmers' innovativeness. A stable long-term policy for renewable energy and decreased payback time are recommended to further promote solar PV adoption.