Residential solar photovoltaics deployment: barriers and drivers in space

In order to support a sustainability transition in the energy sector, actors need knowledge about barriers and drivers to the deployment of clean energy technologies. Solar photovoltaics (PV) is a renewable energy technology that is technically mature and on the verge of becoming economically competitive in numerous regions around the world. Not least in the residential segment, PV has considerable potential. Even after residential PV has reached economic competitiveness, however, the technology might still face important barriers in the sociotechnical system in which it is to be deployed.

This thesis aims at adding knowledge about barriers and drivers to the deployment of residential PV systems. The research takes a sociotechnical systems perspective and demonstrates how the technological innovation systems (TIS) framework can be amended by the business models and the diffusion of innovations frameworks to study the deployment of a mature technology in a catching-up market, treating technology development and production as a ‘black box’. The research is largely based on case studies and uses various modes of data collection and analysis. The bulk of the research was performed in Swedish settings on the national and local levels, although the United States, Germany and Japan were also studied. Studying these different contexts, the thesis builds knowledge about barriers and drivers on different spatial scales. The researched focused on the period between 2009 and 2014.

The results highlight various barriers and drivers in the studied contexts. On the national level, the Swedish sociotechnical system for PV deployment has been immature and infested by various institutional barriers. Swedish subsidies for PV deployment have been flawed with uncertainties, complexities and discontinuations, and there have been important uncertainties regarding the future development of the institutional set-up. The results also demonstrate how barriers in different national contexts have been decisive for what kinds of business models for PV deployment that have been viable. On the local level in Sweden, the results show how actors such as local electric utilities and private individuals have influenced homeowners to adopt PV through information dissemination and social influence (peer effects). The results can inform policymakers, firms and other actors as to how to support PV deployment.