A comparison of the drivers influencing farmers' adoption of enterprises associated with renewable energy

A declared target of both the UK government and the European Union is to produce 15% of energy requirements from renewable sources by the year 2020; however the UK is very unlikely to achieve this. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has identified the potential amongst the farming industry to help meet this objective (DEFRA, 2007) but there is little published research on how organisations can successfully interact with farmers to achieve structural change. This paper reports the findings of a postal questionnaire survey of farmers in the West Midlands Region of the UK where principal component analysis revealed that personal, farm business, regulatory and behavioural drivers affected the rate of adoption of renewable energy (RE) enterprises. Of the 393 farmers who responded, 14% had adopted one or more enterprises associated with RE with solar energy production the most popular of the RE technologies available to farmers. The study found that the most influential personal level factors contributing to the adoption of RE and associated technologies were cognitive, such as level of education, but not administrative, such as the attractiveness of government schemes supporting RE and associated enterprises. Adopters also tended to be younger than non-adopters, perhaps reflecting the impact of long investment payback periods typically found with RE enterprises, they were involved with larger and more financially viable businesses that were more likely to trade as limited companies or family partnerships. Of current non adopters, 66% might decide to invest in RE technologies over the next five years. For these potential adopters, it emerged that personal, farm business and behavioural factors were the most significant drivers though contrary to expectation current non adopters assessed the policy support framework more favourably than current adopters. The explanation of this seems to be connected with timing, in that two very positive and encouraging signals in relation to Feed in Tariffs (2010) and the Renewable Heat Incentive (2011) were underway or near introduction before this research took place. The policy implications of these research findings are discussed. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.