skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: How Modeling the Adoption of Household Clean Energy Technologies can Inform Stakeholder Decisions
Increasing the adoption of household clean energy technologies is important to achieving sustainable development and to improving the environmental, economic, and social impacts of these technology interventions. While much work has been done to understand the many factors driving successful interventions, little research has been done to quantify and then model the adoption of these technologies. Current optimization models to maximize impact rely on the effective prediction of adoption, yet this piece remains the least understood component. The purpose of this paper is to outline the various ways in which being able to model the adoption of household clean energy technologies would be beneficial for designers, implementation organizations, and policymakers to aid in their design and decision-making processes. We provide a brief review of the literature and current challenges to adoption, examples of current methods and modeling tools that can be used to optimize sustainable impacts, and how these tools could be improved through adoption modeling. We discuss the benefits of being able to model adoption for various stakeholders in the clean energy sector along with proposing some methodologies that can be used to accomplish this goal.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1662485
PAR ID:
10233896
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
2020 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC)
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1 to 8
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Abstract Agricultural technologies are vital for farmers adapting to climate change. However, while efforts have focused on improving access and initial adoption, little attention has been given to social disparities in rates of adoption and the benefits derived from these technologies. Our study investigates the adoption of groundwater irrigation technology in India, a transformative innovation that has historically enhanced productivity and food security, and helped agricultural households adapt to a changing climate. We use a nationwide household survey sample that spans nearly a decade, capturing a key period of groundwater expansion in India. Our analysis reveals that members of highly marginalized social groups are less likely to adopt groundwater irrigation technologies, and less likely to sustain their use of the technologies for long periods of time. Furthermore, the household-level benefits of the technologies–operationalized through the relationship between technology adoption and income–appear lower for households belonging to historically marginalized groups compared to the historically advantaged. Our study underscores the importance of addressing social inequalities in both adoption as well as the sustained utilization of agricultural technologies and other climate adaptation tools. Disparities in the utilization of these technologies can hinder farmers’ ability to access new innovations and adapt to increasing threats from climate change. Targeted policies and interventions are essential to not only provide historically marginalized groups access to technological innovations, but also facilitate their effective utilization. 
    more » « less
  2. null (Ed.)
    Abstract Technology adoption in low-income regions is among the key challenges facing international development projects. Nearly 40% of the world's population relies on open fires and rudimentary cooking devices exacerbating health outcomes, deforestation, and climatic impacts of inefficient biomass burning. Clean technology alternatives such as clean cookstoves are among the most challenging technologies to approach their target goals through sustainable adoption due to a lack of systematic market-driven design for adoption. Thus, a method is needed to provide insight regarding how target customers evaluate and perceive causes for adopting a clean technology. The holistic approach of this study captures technology adoption through lenses of social networks, individual and society scale beliefs, and rational decision-making behavior. Based on the data collected in the Apac region in Northern Uganda, an agent-based model is developed to simulate emerging adoption behavior in a community. Then, four different scenarios investigate how adoption patterns change due to the potential changes in technology or intervention strategy. These scenarios include influence of stove malfunctions, price elasticity, information campaigns, and strength of a social network. Results suggest that higher adoption rates are achievable if designed technologies are more durable, information campaigns provide realistic expectations for users, policymakers, and education programs work toward women's empowerment, and communal social ties are recognized for influence maximization. The application of this study provides insight for technology designers, project implementers, and policymakers to update their practices for achieving sustainable and to the scale clean technology adoption rates. 
    more » « less
  3. Technology adoption in low-income regions is among the key challenges facing nternational development projects. Nearly 40% of the world’s population relies on open ires and rudimentary cooking devices exacerbating health outcomes, deforestation, and climatic impacts of inefficient biomass burning. Clean technology alternatives such as clean cookstoves are among the most challenging technologies to approach their target goals through sustainable adoption due to lack of systematic market-driven design for adoption. Thus, a method is needed to provide insight regarding how target customers evaluate and perceive causes for adopting a clean technology. The holistic approach of this study captures the three main aspects of technology adoption through lenses of social networks, individual and society scale beliefs, and rational decision-making behavior. Based on data collected in the Apac region in Northern Uganda, an Agent-Based Model is developed to simulate emerging adoption behavior in a community. Then, four different scenarios investigate how adoption patterns change due to potential changes in technology or intervention strategy. These scenarios include influence of stove malfunctions, price elasticity, information campaigns, and strength of social network. Results suggest that higher adoption rates are achievable if designed technologies are more durable, information campaigns provide realistic expectations for users, policy makers and education programs work toward women’s empowerment, and communal social ties are recognized for influence maximization. Application of this study provides insight for technology designers, project implementers, and policy makers to update their practices for achieving sustainable and to the scale clean technology adoption rates. 
    more » « less
  4. With the advent of new mobility modes and technologies, we have seen meaningful changes in travel behavior. One such new mobility mode is on-demand transit. The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority deployed its own on-demand transit system, dubbed MARTA Reach, in March of 2022. This paper provides an evaluation of the characteristics of two groups of people related to MARTA Reach: those who were interested in it and used it and those who were interested in it but did not use it. In addition, this paper explores the factors that influence membership in each of those two groups using a binary logit model, revealing the underlying characteristics that are linked with the decision to use or not use the service given prior interest. The findings show that simply providing more service has the strongest effect on adoption. Among 561 survey respondents, 426 expressed that the service area for MARTA Reach was too limited for their needs. Modeling results support this finding, in addition to the following strong predictors of on-demand transit adoption: 1) being a frequent transit user, 2) being satisfied with the current state of fixed-route transit service, 3) being part of a low-income household, 4) living within an on-demand transit service area, and 5) being younger. Understanding these group characteristics and underlying factors can help guide future efforts to provide on-demand transit service, such as by targeting the market segments that share features with the underlying factors that are shown herein to be linked with on-demand transit adoption. 
    more » « less
  5. Abstract Meeting the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals efficiently requires designers and engineers to solve multi-objective optimization problems involving trade-offs between social, environmental, and economical impacts. This paper presents an approach for designers and engineers to quantify the social and environmental impacts of a product at a population level and then perform a trade-off analysis between those impacts. In this approach, designers and engineers define the attributes of the product as well as the materials and processes used in the product’s life cycle. Agent-based modeling (ABM) tools that have been developed to model the social impacts of products are combined with life cycle assessment (LCA) tools that have been developed to evaluate the pressures that different processes create on the environment. Designers and engineers then evaluate the trade-offs between impacts by finding non-dominated solutions that minimize environmental impacts while maximizing positive and/or minimizing negative social impacts. Product adoption models generated by ABM allow designers and engineers to approximate population level environmental impacts and avoid Simpson’s paradox, where a reversal in choices is preferred when looking at the population level impacts versus the individual product-level impacts. This analysis of impacts has the potential to help designers and engineers create more impactful products that aid in reaching the UN sustainable development goals. 
    more » « less