Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Three Essays On The Financial Returns To Residential Solar Pv Adoption, Emma Grazier

Doctoral Dissertations

As the effects of climate change continue to accelerate, threatening human life and the environment worldwide, the need to decarbonize our energy system is urgent and imperative. Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is an important component of the United States’ decarbonization strategy. Solar diffusion policies like net metering, tax incentives, and renewable energy certificates create financial value for adopters. Evaluations of those policies tend to focus on adoption as the primary metric of success: more households adopting solar means less reliance on fossil fuels and fewer carbon emissions. However, adoption alone as a success metric fails to account for a policy’s …