Publics׳ knowledge, attitudes and behavioral toward the use of solar energy in Yemen power sector

This paper presents the information of the public׳s views on the solar energy use in Yemen. It examines the public knowledge of, attitudes and behavioral intentions that include the variables “willingness to pay, “willingness to change” and “willingness to invest”, and then compare them. A personal interview with 348 urban household and 258 rural household was performed. The descriptive statistics, Chi-square for independence, odds ratios, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were the statistical tools employed in the analysis. The results showed that, the citizens in both areas have a moderate level of knowledge about renewable energy resources, the benefits and drawbacks of solar energy use in the power sector, and the solar power technologies. Despite that, they have highly positive attitudes towards the use of renewable energy, particularly solar energy and its technologies. They also accept to engage in the renewable energy activities, which aim to improve the quality of the electrical service provided in the country. The findings also indicate 66%, 55.7% and 78.4% of urban citizens are willing to pay, to change and to invest compared to 70%, 55.4% and 75.6% of rural citizens. The “place of residence” factor affected significantly the citizens' knowledge level about renewable energy; wind, biomass and geothermal energy; renewable energy resources; the drawbacks of solar energy use in the power sector; and the solar power technologies. It also affected significantly the citizens׳ attitudes towards the use of solar power technologies at home. The implications for the policymakers are that elevating the knowledge and awareness of the citizens by formal and informal education, and enacting effective supportive policies assists in encouraging the citizens to use renewable energies in their daily lives would lead to achieve the country's renewable energy targets for 2025.