Systematic Review of Public Acceptance of Solar Policies: A Conceptual Framework of Policy Acceptance

Policy goals for sustainable energy will be hampered without sufficient public acceptance and public support. While there is a growing body of literature on public acceptance for solar energy, most studies tend to investigate public acceptance of new technology, and not on the policies constructed that aims to help successful deployment. It is argued that without policy acceptance, the implementation of the technology is not going to be as smooth as planned. Thus, it is important to understand and reveal the drivers for public acceptance of these policies. A study was conducted with the objective to identify the key factors contributing to solar policy acceptance among individual homeowners. The constructs are then organized in a systematic manner to develop a framework to foothold the study model. This study integrates both the ‘internal’ factors and the ‘external’ factors in one framework that is both comprehensive and feasible to undertake. Following a systematic 4-step process of identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion, relevant published materials were identified and gathered. The recurring factors contributing to policy acceptance are then extracted and analyzed. The factors are personal norms, environmental concern, economic, social, geographic, personal capability, and house characteristics. The factors were then categorized according to Stern's (2000) Attitude- Behavior-Context (ABC) framework.