Exploring citizens' decision to crowdfund renewable energy projects: Quantitative evidence from France

Abstract

Abstract Over the past few years, benefiting from broad citizen and political support, renewable energy (RE) crowdfunding has experienced a strong growth in France. RE crowdfunding is a relevant instrument to support the transition from fossil to RE sources by simultaneously diversifying funding possibilities, committing retail investors to the energy transition, and stimulating local acceptance. Thus, it is crucial to better understand the RE crowdfunding investment decision-making process to ease the design and assessment of related policies. However, the existing literature on RE crowdfunding is relatively scarce and has not focused on this issue so far. Relying on a novel survey dataset, this article specifically aims at filling this gap using a probit regression analysis. Our findings suggest that, among the French population, the main predictors of the decision to invest in RE crowdfunding (sign in parentheses) are: (i) the general opinion about the RE sector (positive), (ii) opinions about the RE sector durability (i.e., business continuity over time) and investment opportunities transparency (positive), and (iii) risk perception (negative). Besides this, positive and strong spillovers arise from existing RE investments in other investment vehicles. However, opinions about the RE sector profitability and regulation do not play a significant role. These results are unchanged by the introduction of various controls. Additionally, they suggest that the policy framework recently implemented in France – such as the GREENFIN France Finance Verte label (2015), RE development targets explicitly introduced in the Programmation Pluriannuelle de l'Energie (2015), or the recent PACTE law (2019) that provides support to various green investment possibilities – is relevant to foster the development of RE crowdfunding. Such policies indeed contribute to anchor investors' expectations, foster coordination and transparency, and provide spillovers' opportunities, which are key levers identified in this paper.