 Photovoltaics in agriculture: A case study on decision making of farmersThomas Brudermann, Kathrin Reinsberger, Anita Orthofer, Martin Kislinger and Alfred Posch Energy Policy, 2013, vol. 61, issue C, 96-103 Abstract: This paper aims to identify the success factors, incentives, barriers and challenges in the adoption process of photovoltaics (PV) in the agricultural sector, with particular focus placed on decision making of individual farmers and network effects. We investigated a successful case of an Austrian farmers' association that set up a community power plant concept and a society for facilitating PV adoption among farmers. We found that PV adoption decisions are driven by economic and environmental considerations and that while ethical considerations are relatively strong among farmers, they cannot be used as predictors in the decision making process. Results furthermore suggest that while adoption of PV increases belief in technological progress as a solution to environmental problems, it may simultaneously lead to a weakening in the belief that underlying lifestyle changes are necessary. Our conclusions address crucial aspects of PV adoption in agriculture, and implications for policy measures related to respective community initiatives. Keywords: PV adoption; PV in agriculture; Community renewables (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:61:y:2013:i:c:p:96-103 DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2013.06.081 Access Statistics for this article Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier |
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