The Influence of Spatial Setting and Socioeconomic Profile in Urban Areas in the Diffusion of Residential Photovoltaic Systems

In recent years Connecticut has been one of the most active jurisdictions to support the adoption of residential photovoltaic systems (PV). The distribution of PV is still quite uneven across the state because of the combination of metering policies and current incentive design, (Graziano and Gillingham, 2014). In the present work, we focus on the different profiles of adopters within four towns in Connecticut. We draw from the previous studies of Graziano and Gillingham (2014), and Bollinger and Gillingham (2012) to understand the role of the jurisdictional and built environment in the adoption of PV systems, through their effect on other socioeconomic drivers such as spatial peer effects. We use partition our four towns in to block groups, and conduct a typology analysis of the block groups with higher adoption rates of PV systems in 2013. We find that the profile of the potential adopters changes between towns, with Hartford and Glastonbury providing two quite interesting conflicting results in terms of area geography and socioeconomic status. In addition, we use the area-wide profile to understand how this matches the findings provided by empirical estimations based on Graziano and Gillingham (2014), for which we use more refined density values. We find that the built environment affects the diffusion of PV systems indirectly, as it limits the temporal and distance extent of spatial peer effects.