Solar photovoltaic deployment acceleration model to advance the sustainability of buildings in public universities in South Africa

Abstract

The need to construct sustainable buildings has triggered the deployment of solar photovoltaics (PV) but tools are required to facilitate the process and accelerate the transition at a faster pace. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to present a PV deployment acceleration model (PVDAM) to advance the sustainability of buildings in public universities in South Africa. The data were collected using questionnaire surveys and analysed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The PLS-SEM results and recommendations from panellists were used to develop and validate the PVDAM. It was found that the category of drivers that have a significant positive influence on deployment was ‘direct benefits’; these include reduction of energy cost, enhancement of university image, boosting university sustainability performance and contribution to sustainable development goals (SDG) realisation. In contrast, the lack of incentives, lack of demand from project financiers, and inadequate funding were found to be factors that contributed to the significant negative influence of ‘government-related barriers’ on PV deployment. To boost deployment, six major actions were recommended to reinforce the ‘direct benefits’ and eliminate the ‘government-related barriers’. Overall, the study provided empirical evidence which can help stakeholders/policymakers take action to accelerate deployment in the public university sector.