Understanding the Evolution of Customer Motivations and Adoption Barriers in Residential Solar Markets: Survey Data

This research focused on accelerating solar photovoltaic (PV) diffusion by collecting new market data and developing predictive modeling frameworks to test and refine understandings of household level motivations for adopting solar.

Three different household-level surveys were fielded: one for households who had installed PV on their current home or had signed a contract to do so (the Adopter survey), one for households that had seriously considered PV but had not installed it (the Considerer survey), and one for the general population who did not have PV on their current home (the general population survey or GPS). Survey respondents were from four U.S. states: New Jersey, New York, Arizona, and California. Details of recruiting and sampling are documented below.

Research projects on residential PV adoption often collect data only from PV adopters or from the general population. One of the innovations of this project was the three-pronged household survey data collection. By collecting similar data from three fairly different "statuses" with respect to adoption, the surveys provide a basis for understanding how those who do not have rooftop PV differ from those who have, for how and why people do (or don't) transition from not having to having rooftop PV on their home, and for understanding the characteristics and viewpoints of households who have scarcely, or not at all, entered the "PV consideration" track. All three surveys covered single-family owner-occupied households in each of the four target states used in the project -- Arizona, California, New Jersey, and New York - allowing a comparative approach to understanding how the factors that affect PV adoption vary by geography and policy conditions.

The General Population and Considerer surveys provide a basis for understanding opinions about and interest in solar, and how these relate to household demographics and other conditions. Paired with the Adopter survey, they also provide data for understanding how those who do not have rooftop PV differ from those who have, and for how and why people do (or don't) transition from not having to having rooftop PV on their home. The Adopter survey questions were designed to capture a broad range of information on what motivates and impedes households to install rooftop PV, as well as the details and timing of the decision and installation. Survey instrument development drew from existing PV adoption survey instruments, PV adoption literature, and research team experience, as well as from past work on household interest in energy efficiency, environmental attitudes, purchasing tendencies, and related knowledge. Early interviews and discussions with installers and others in the PV industry were also taken into consideration.
13 Data Resources
Name Size Type Resource Description History
Additional Terms of Use.pdf 206.1 KB Document Additional Terms of Use for data
Adopter Survey Delivery.pdf 534.81 KB Document Adopter Survey sampling and recruiting notes.
Adopter Codebook.pdf 377.18 KB Document Adopter survey response data codebook
Adopter Survey Data.zip 155.97 KB Archive .Zip archive including Adopter survey response data (.csv); survey metadata (.xml) in Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) Codebook 2.5 standard format (see http://www.ddialliance.org/ for more information and a list of tools for converting metadata to other data formats); and the Terms of Use for the project data.
Considerer Survey Data.zip 60.41 KB Archive .Zip archive including Considerer survey response data (.csv); survey metadata (.xml) in Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) Codebook 2.5 standard format (see http://www.ddialliance.org/ for more information and a list of tools for converting metadata to other data formats); and the Terms of Use for the project data.
Considerer Instrument.pdf 300.06 KB Document Considerer survey instrument
Considerer Codebook.pdf 302.38 KB Document Considerer survey response data codebook
Adopter Instrument.pdf 370.66 KB Document Adopter survey instrument
Considerer Survey Delivery.pdf 507.92 KB Document Considerer survey sampling and recruiting notes
GPS Survey Data.zip 80.84 KB Archive .Zip archive including General population survey response data (.csv); survey metadata (.xml) in Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) Codebook 2.5 standard format (see http://www.ddialliance.org/ for more information and a list of tools for converting metadata to other data formats); and the Terms of Use for the project data.
GPS Instrument.pdf 330 KB Document General population survey instrument
GPS Survey Delivery.pdf 500.27 KB Document General population survey sampling and recruiting notes
GPS Codebook.pdf 214.33 KB Document General population survey response data codebook
Author Information
Ben Sigrin, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Tom Dietz, Social and Environmental Research Institute
Adam Henry, University of Arizona
Aaron Ingle, Portland State University
Loren Lutzenhiser, Portland State University
Mithra Moezzi, Portland State University
Seth Spielman, University of Colorado - Boulder
Paul Stern, Social and Environmental Research Institute
Annika Todd, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
James Tong, Clean Power Finance
Kim Wolske, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Cite This Dataset
Sigrin, Ben, Tom Dietz, Adam Henry, Aaron Ingle, Loren Lutzenhiser, Mithra Moezzi, Seth Spielman, Paul Stern, Annika Todd, James Tong, and Kim Wolske. 2017. "Understanding the Evolution of Customer Motivations and Adoption Barriers in Residential Solar Markets: Survey Data." NREL Data Catalog. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Last updated: December 12, 2023. DOI: 10.7799/1362095.
About This Dataset
68
10.7799/1362095
Public
12/12/2023
DOE Project
Understanding the Evolution of Customer Motivations and Adoption Barriers in Residential Photovoltaics Markets
Funding Organization
Department of Energy (DOE)
Sponsoring Organization
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)
Research Areas
Energy Analysis
Solar Power
License
View License
Digital Object Identifier
10.7799/1362095