Seeing is believing: your neighbour’s choice to go solar might have influenced you more than you think

By Kaveh Khalilpour, Associate Professor in Engineering and IT, University of Technology Sydney
Alexey Voinov, Professor in Sustainability Science, University of Twente

What made you decide to go solar? Was it a sober assessment of the return on investment? Did you want to cut your power bills? Did you want to do your bit on climate change?

While these reasons are common, another factor might be in play: your neighbours. The more solar panels you see around your neighbourhood, the more likely you are to have them installed yourself. It’s a form of social license – seeing solar near you legitimises the idea. As more people in the same area install solar, it creates a ripple effect.

There is ample…

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