Regional disparity of residential solar panel diffusion in Australia: The roles of socio-economic factors

Abstract

In following a pathway towards decarbonisation of energy systems, Australia has successfully accelerated the adoption of solar technologies, with approximately three million small-scale distributed solar panels installed on rooftops of Australian homes. This study, in seeking to explore the effects of socio-economic variables on solar energy uptake, firstly explored the historical diffusions of household solar panels across 2668 Australian postcode areas, and classified the postal areas into three groups through K-means clustering according to their solar penetration status, namely the regions with low, medium, and high solar-level. Subsequently, this study carried out a hierarchical regression analysis investigating the significant socio-economic factors impacting solar adoption in each of the three region types. The results indicate that the three solar groups have different significant impacting factors. In addition, factors, such as detached house and multi-person household, positively contribute to the solar panel uptake, while factors like population density and middle-aged people provide negative contributes. The findings suggest new directions that could be taken for future policies and viable business models, and that specific measures for the varied socio-economic factors to be considered at different stages of solar energy development.