Going solar: motivators, barriers, and enablers to residential photovoltaic system adoption in Mexico

Abstract

Mexico's lag in the adoption of renewable energy sources compared to other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, coupled with the depletion of its oil and gas reserves, has raised concerns about its dependence on fossil fuels. To address this issue, the goal of this research is to provide policy recommendations to promote the adoption of residential photovoltaic systems. By identifying the main motivators, barriers, and enablers of adoption, this research can offer insights into the factors that can help Mexico transition to renewable energy sources. To address the research question to what degree are the most prevalent motivators, barriers, and enablers of the adoption of residential photovoltaic systems present in Mexico? this piece of research uses an in-house-designed survey to gather data on motivators, barriers, and enablers of residential photovoltaic system adoption. Logit regression, cross-validation of opinions using a randomized survey experiment, ranking of responses, and spatial regression were used to analyze the obtained survey responses. Additionally, administrative, and geographic information system data were utilized to establish correlations between solar irradiance and energy consumption. The findings of this study are I) people does display environmental interest to install photovoltaic systems, II) there is not a statistically significant effect on reducing the cost of the electricity bill, III) the main barriers are acquisition cost, information issues on both technical and acquisition aspects of photovoltaic systems, lack of financial aid, and the potential adopter is not the owner of the house. Based on the findings, the policy measures that recommended to increasing adoption rates of residential photovoltaic systems are a combination of reflecting the true price of energy, providing subsidies for acquiring solar panels, and offering high-quality advice on the adoption. All the previous measures focusing primarily in highly irradiance zones of the country. By addressing the barriers and leveraging the enablers, Mexico can accelerate the adoption of photovoltaic systems and move towards a more sustainable energy future.