| This is a quantitative non-experimental research study that was designed to investigate policy impact on solar energy development within the United States. There is interest in renewable energy in general and solar energy in particular. Part of this interest is related to the impact of federal policies on solar technology development. Federal policies are mostly in the forms of loans, subsidies and tax credits which may or may not be responsible for adoption of solar energy technology. The acceptance or adoption of solar energy technology presents an opportunity to theorize about perceptions about, not only federal policy impact but also, expanding the technology acceptance model variation to test its applicability in a consumer context away from the conventional organizational context espoused in the original technology acceptance model, TAM. Consumer behavior models provide framework to investigate the impact of policies on both solar energy technology adoption and solar project success. This can be done through analyzing the attendant correlations. This study is expected to contribute to the expansion of the frontiers of technology acceptance model, TAM and its unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, UTAUT2 extended for consumer context conundrum. The independent variables are based on UTAUT constructs (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, federal policies and personalized motivations). Can solar energy technology adoption be influenced by performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, federal policies and personalized motivations? The use of a validated instrument of technology acceptance provided a shed for analysis and correlation of the data that was measured. This research study assumed that the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology is robust and elastic enough to be applied to solar energy technology adoption. Multiple linear regression analysis was used and, analysis of variance, ANOVA, was used to determine the overall fit of the regression model. The study showed that federal government policies, as facilitating conditions, significantly impact the adoption solar energy technology. Thus the UTAUT model holds good for solar energy technology adoption. |
