Motivation for households' investment in photovoltaics in Czechia: An exploratory factor analysis

Abstract

Photovoltaics (PV) are an integral part of the climate neutrality transition; aside from reducing fossil fuel consumption, they provide additional and impactful private and societal benefits. When purchasing PV, the decision-making of small investors is a complex process. We investigate how households decide to invest in PV on rooftops. From a sample of over 2500 respondents, we found that while personal financial benefits are the primary motivation for acquiring PV plants, other variables, such as production independence and ecological benefits were almost equally important. The factor analysis revealed four latent motivation factors that drive the decision-making: economic, technical, ecological, and surroundings. Additionally, households are not fully homogenous in their decision-making. Education, income, and age influenced the attribution of importance the respondents gave to the specific factors. Conversely, the settlement size was not a strong predictor of the decision-making. The results imply the need for diversified policy design across different groups of investors.