Impoverished villagers’ solar PV adoption in rural China: A perspective of agent intervention, economic benefit perception and sense of community

The acceleration of solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption has been recognized as a critical way to solve energy crises worldwide. China has initiated a Solar PV poverty alleviation policy (PPAP) to defuse solar PV and alliviate poverty. However, does the main approach of PPAP — providing economic subsidies and deploying village-based agents — significantly promote solar PV adoption? Is there a correlation between sense of community and impoverished villagers' solar PV adoption? To this end, this study establishes a structural equation model to examine the determinants of solar PV adoption intention on a questionnaire dataset of 1251 impoverished villagers across 8 provinces in rural China. The results indicate that: (1) The agents intervention has directly promoted villagers' solar PV adoption intention significantly; (2) The intervention of village-based agents has enhanced villagers' perception of the economic benefits of solar PV, thereby promoting their adoption; (3) Sense of community has negatively affected the villagers’ solar PV adoption and; (4) Sense of community has played a moderating role in the relationship between agent intervention and adoption intention. These findings provide key implications for fostering the solar PV governance process through collaborative supportive policy frameworks, by addressing the sense of community and agent intervention.