Promotion policies for third party financing in Photovoltaic Poverty Alleviation projects considering social reputation

Abstract

As an integrated approach to renewable energy adoption and poverty alleviation, Photovoltaic Poverty Alleviation (PVPA) projects carry the weight of significance and expectation from the Chinese government and the public. However, fund shortages due to the high initial investment and long pay-back period for poor households has become the biggest bottleneck for PVPA implementation. Third-party financing was therefore introduced and the potential reputational benefits were promoted to encourage corporations to fund PVPA projects by attracting more investors. In the present study, an assessment of the combination of both the direct economic benefits from PV systems and the social reputational benefits was conducted. In order to simulate the impacts of the formation and dissemination of a corporation's reputation on the economic benefit, an agent-based model in a multiplex network is developed and applied. The results indicate that joining a PVPA project will promote the social reputation of third party investors and bring about potential profits. Meanwhile, information-targeted policies, including information exposure and encouraging social discussion, are required to sustain the profit benefits from reputational promotion. The two policies are shown to be effective when implemented separately, however, when the two polices are introduced simultaneously, the contribution of information exposure was overshadowed by the policy of encouraging social discussion.