Farmers' willingness to convert traditional houses to solar houses in rural areas: A survey of 465 households in Chongqing, China

In rural China, reducing low-quality fuel consumption and adopting solar technologies can mitigate pollution problems and improve farmers' living conditions. Before advising farmers to convert traditional houses to solar houses, it is necessary to understand their willingness to do so. Based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), this study examined nine factors related to farmers' willingness (FW). A survey was conducted in Chongqing with 465 participants. Nine hypotheses were proposed based on literature studies. A binary logistic regression model was constructed to test the data with the SPSS software package. Three of the nine factors had positive and significant impacts on FW, which were quality of life, government commitments and neighbours'/friends' assessments; two factors had negative and significant impacts, which were additional monthly out-of-pocket expenses and switching cost; and the remaining four factors had no significant impacts, which were durability, popularity, timing and local solar market maturity. Based on the findings, suggestions are made to properly introduce solar houses to Chinese farmers and to quickly stimulate market activities. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.