Factors Affecting Solar Energy Satisfaction among Households in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria

Abstract

The importance of solar electrification cannot be overemphasized because of its enormous contributions to clean energy supply. However, several problems that affect its use exist. Thus, this paper examined the factors affecting solar energy satisfaction among households in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria. The study utilized mainly 109 primary data obtained through snowball sampling technique and applied pie charts and a binary logistic regression model as tools for analyses. Results showed that about 85% of those using solar energy had encountered one problem or the other. About 76.9% lacked proper guidance by their solar installers on how to maintain it, 21.3% bought equipment with defects, 84.3% had no technical know-how on maintaining it, while 53.7% complained of the inefficiency of the already installed energy capacity. On the extent of households' problems, all the variables were positive although buying a piece of defective equipment and the already installed capacity's inefficiency was significant at p< 0.001. In comparison, lack of proper guidance by the solar power installers and lack of technical knowhow on the consumers' part on maintaining their solar equipment were both significant at p<0.05. In conclusion, the elasticity of the coefficient shows that a unit increase in defective equipment affected the consumers much more than the other problems. The study recommends that awareness should be created on the part of the consumers about the right place to buy their solar equipment and on how to maintain it. On the part of the installers, government and NGOs should make provisions for programs that provide skill acquisition on solar energy installation.