Reasons for low penetration on the purchase of photovoltaic (PV) panel system among Malaysian landed property owners

Abstract

The current study aims to explore the role of customer acceptance and attempts to investigate its effects on photovoltaic (PV) panel adoption among Malaysian landed property owners. Malaysia is rich in sunshine throughout the year with about 4.0–4.9kWh/m2/day of solar radiation, a daily sunshine duration ranging from 4 to 8h, but the extraction and utilization of sun light power is relatively less. A massive quantitative cross sectional research survey was conducted to understand customers’ perceptions towards the predictors for the purchase intention of PV panel system. Out of 157 Malaysian respondents surveyed, 74 (47.1%) of the respondents have intention to install PV panel system for their landed property houses. The findings reveal that the respondents are keen on installing PV panel system provided they get some returns in the form of electricity through money back scheme. The technology barriers and environment concerns have negative impact on the purchase intention of photovoltaic (PV) panel system. Most of the respondents who have intention to purchase PV panel system are influenced by their friends, relatives or their close colleagues. The results also indicated that the size of the roof does not moderate the purchase intention of PV panel system. Further, the respondents of the study have suggested a variety of practical implications for both manufacturers and customers of PV panel system. PV panel manufacturers can work on lowering the cost by capturing maximum sun exposure using advanced technology and design the system with different modules for short and long term ‘Use and Throw’ technology installations. On the customer side, solar system installation requires a high capital investment and therefore Malaysian customers can be allowed to use employees’ provident fund contribution withdrawal for the use of renewable energy towards contributing to the high rate of green energy applications.