Navigating Renewable Energy Markets in Saudi Arabia: Residential Rooftop Solar Panels and Potential Consumer Preferences

Abstract

This three-article dissertation investigated the main factors shaping consumer preferences for residential rooftop solar panels in Saudi Arabia. Particular attention is focused on how individual socio-economic characteristics, the built environment, social networks, and fiscal incentives influence the willingness to adopt and pay for solar panels. Much of this sort of research has been neglected in a non-Western setting. Drawing from data collected through an online survey of 1,647 respondents in Saudi Arabia, the three papers employed chi-square tests of association to unravel these interactions for three different, nonwestern geographic settings in Saudi Arabia: a large urban area (Riyadh City), a medium-sized urban area (Buraydah City), and the rural areas of Al-Qassim Province. The first study revealed that the willingness to adopt was influenced by personal environmental values, financial incentives, previous cost-benefit perceptions, and the built environment. The second study found that the willingness to pay was strongly associated with prior perceptions and expectations linked to household energy budgets and solar panel costs, fiscal incentives, and existing environmental beliefs. In the third study, the focus shifted to the actual price individuals were willing to pay for solar installations, where socio-economic factors such as gender and income levels emerged as significant determinants. Geographic variation was evident in the associated factors with the willingness to adopt, pay, and price preference for rooftop solar panels. The study's results underscore the necessity for customized policy approaches to promote renewable energy use in Saudi Arabia, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of the local solar energy market and offering insights for policymakers to foster inclusive and sustainable energy transitions.