Citizen-financed solar projects

Many groups, including lower-income households and tenants, are often excluded from purchasing solar photovoltaics for their homes. Citizen-financed photovoltaic (CiFi PV) projects are an emerging solution for more inclusive citizen engagement in the energy transition, through the financing of larger-scale solar PV installations. Now, Fabienne Sierro and Yann Blumer from ZHAW School of Management and Law and ETH Zürich present insights from interviews with both project developers of, and participants in, citizen-financed solar PV projects in Switzerland, shedding light on motivations behind participation.

The team conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 citizen participants and 13 CiFi PV project developers involved in seven projects in French- and German-speaking Switzerland to better understand motivations behind participation. The researchers identified 27 motivational factors through a grounded theory approach including four inductive coding cycles. They found motivations to largely fall into categories of: accessibility (with a low threshold for participation and no private PV investment opportunities as drivers), a desire to accelerate the energy transition and address environmental concerns, the perceived positive financial benefits, the local value creation, and a feeling of participation (collective action and belonging), amongst other personal factors. Feedback from interviews with participants highlight a degree of demand for more CiFi PV projects and provides insights on how future project developers may attract citizen investors.