Analysis of the soial acceptance of PV and BIPV technologies in Mediterranean cities

This paper provides an analysis of six Mediterranean countries as regards the attitudes and preferences on solar technologies. It analyses the social acceptance of PV technologies both in the private dimension (i.e. willingness to install a specific PV system) and in the public dimension (i.e. acceptability of specific BIPV applications in the urban context where the individual resides). We designed an original experiment, using simulations of BIPV applications in residential buildings representative of each city, in order to elicit preferences for different technological and aesthetic solutions, conditional on different levels of information on the cost effectiveness of each option. Results show the positive influence of awareness of benefits, subsidies, “neutral” information and peer effect on the potential adopter of PV technologies; a positive attitude and attachment toward the city also plays an important role. Similar results are found when we examine the social acceptability of different PV applications on residential buildings in the urban context. A comparative analysis across countries reveals that Italian, Tunisian and Jordanian respondents seem the most interested in PV technologies, while Spanish respondents focus on negative aspects associated with a PV investment. Lebanese and Egyptian respondents are in between the two positions.