Who wants solar water heaters and alternative fuel vehicles? Assessing social-psychological predictors of adoption intention and policy support in China

Renewable energy technologies, such as solar water heaters (SWHs) and alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), have been widely adopted in China. Using an extended model of the Theory of Planned Behavior, we investigated how social-psychological factors (environmental attitudes, perceived behavioral control (PBC), subjective and descriptive norms, and renewable energy knowledge) affect individuals' intention to adopt SWHs and AFVs and support renewable energy policies for a sample of 655 Chinese university students. Results of structural equation models indicate that environmental attitudes have strong positive effects on the intention to adopt SWHs and AFVs and support renewable energy policies. Renewable energy knowledge has a positive impact on these two dependent variables. In addition, subjective and descriptive norms and PBC positively influence the intention to adopt renewable energy technologies, but have no significant effect on support for renewable energy policies. Implications of the results are discussed.