How do individual characteristics, cognition, and environmental factors affect the beneficiaries' satisfaction of photovoltaic poverty alleviation projects?—Empirical evidence of 41 villages in rural China

Abstract

As a substantial energy policy for poverty alleviation in China, photovoltaic poverty alleviation projects (PPAPs) have achieved a combination of poverty alleviation development, energy conservation and pollution emissions reduction. It is essential to explore how to improve the beneficiaries' satisfaction of the PPAPs, and thus to play a sustainable role in poverty alleviation. Based on the 1000 households' survey data collected in 41 poor villages in rural China. This paper explores the factors influencing beneficiaries' satisfaction using the entropy weight method (EWM), factor analysis, and ordinal regression model. The results indicate that:(1) there are some geographical differences in beneficiaries' satisfaction with PPAPs, and they are positively associated with the economic development performance of the poor areas; (2) beneficiaries' cognitive factors and environmental factors have disproportionate effects on the satisfaction, while the socio-demographic characteristics of beneficiaries have no significant influence on the comprehensive satisfaction.