How neighbours are leading the solar power shift

The solar industry in Australia is booming, with nearly a third of all households having installed solar panels. 

UTS Associate Professor in Engineering and IT, Dr Kaveh Khalilpour, former UTS student Marty Fuentes, and University of Twente’s Professor Alexey Voinov, explored the ‘neighbourhood’ effects of increased solar energy use in Australia.

In their research, Khalilpor, Fuentes and Voinov analysed what factors convinced people to take up solar, using data from rooftop solar installations between 2001 and 2022 across Australia. Their research found that income, education, age, marriage status, and employment status contributed to 80% of individual decisions to go solar.  

The remaining 20%, however, were due to the neighbourhood effect. Khalilpor, Fuentes and Voinov found that the more solar panels an individual would see around their neighbourhood, the more likely they would be to have them installed as well.

How do my neighbours affect what I do?

Neighbourhood effects aren’t new, but they are of increasing interest as Australia moves towards net zero. It’s a form of social license. Many Australians have considered solar panels, but seeing solar in your neighbour legitimises the idea, thus creating a ripple effect.

Khalilpor, Fuentes and Voinov found that the neighbourhood effect leads to an extra 15-20 solar installations per postcode per year, on average.

In Tasmania, for example, the use of solar panels is relatively low compared to other states. The neighbourhood effect boost uptake as residents see more visible examples of solar energy in use around them. 

While we normally think of Australia’s embrace of solar as an economic choice, it’s more than that – it’s also about the choices of our neighbours and being able to see the technology with our own eyes. As we work to secure a liveable climate, the neighbourhood effect can play an important role.

Marty Fuentes was the lead author of the research. He now works for Transport for NSW and contributed to this article. 

Kaveh Khalilpour, Associate Professor in Engineering and IT, University of Technology Sydney and Alexey Voinov, Professor in Sustainability Science, University of Twente. 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.