Mechanism analysis of rural residents' participation in green energy transition: A community-level case study in Nanjing, China

Abstract

Achieving a transition to green energy requires the government to adopt new policies on green industrial products and energy. Throughout this process, rural residents often face various challenges due to economic and other factors. However, some rural residents are motivated to participate in this transition due to the economic benefits of energy usage and rooftop photovoltaic (PV). This study takes a rural community in the outskirts of Nanjing, China, as an example and applies Granovetter's embeddedness theory and a threshold model to analyze the factors influencing rural residents' engagement in a fair transition to green energy. Research hypotheses are proposed accordingly. The results indicate that rural residents are influenced by multiple factors in the adoption process of rooftop PV projects, primarily encompassing economic and trust-related aspects. From an economic perspective, rural residents evaluate the viability of rooftop PV systems by considering the marketing strategies employed by PV enterprises and the governmental pressure to reduce carbon emissions. They make rational calculations to determine the return on investment, and only when the economic threshold is surpassed will they reach the anticipated level of participation. From the perspective of trust, rural residents' participation in rooftop PV projects is also influenced by trust factors. The level of trust that rural residents have in rooftop PV enterprises, governments, and community organizations plays an important role in their willingness to participate in the green energy transition. Based on these findings, the research paper concludes that local government should continue providing tailored public information and services to facilitate the progress of rooftop PV projects.