Investigating Factors That Influence The Adoption Of Renewable Energy Technology In Kitengela, Kenya

Access to power is widely believed to be a key component to set economic gears in motion within developing countries.With the persistent low rural electrification rates and the urgent need to increase the generating capacity in Kenya,the diffusion of renewable energy technologies has been given high priority by the government as means to contribute to solve these energy-related challenges.The objective of this study was to investigate how sociodemographic factors influences the people of Kitengela to adopt renewable energy,to determine the level of knowledge and awareness of renewable energy by the people in Kitengela,to investigate the key factors that influence the adoption of renewable energy technology in Kitengela,to determine how subjective norm influences people‘s attitudes and acceptance of renewable energy technology in Kitengela and to investigate how availability of substitute influences adoption of renewable energy.In determining the main factors that influence the adoption of renewable energy source,40% of the respondents attributed the influence to the cost,16% demographic factors,12% knowledge and awareness and 10% subjective norm,9% of the respondents attributed the influence to the individual‘s acceptance of technology,5% of the respondents attributed the influence to availability of an alternative,i.e.some respondents who did opted not to install solar systems in their homes because they already had electricity from the grid,others adopted renewable energy because they did not have electricity in their homes.5% of the respondents attributed the influence to their perception of how useful they thought renewable energy was,and 3% attributed their influence to their perception of how easy they thought it was to use and maintain renewable energy.This is the indication that,the cost of renewable energy sources is a key factor that influences its adoption.