| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 958779 | Journal of Environmental Economics and Management | 2016 | 11 Pages |
•We analyze the spatio-temporal diffusion of rooftop-photovoltaics in Germany.•We employ an epidemic diffusion model which we enhance by a spatial component.•We find that imitative adoption behavior is important for explaining PV adoption.•The imitative adoption behavior is highly localized (in the range of 1 km).
The purpose of this paper is to illuminate the spatio-temporal diffusion of rooftop household photovoltaic installations in Germany and to test whether localized imitation drives their adoption. Our study is based on a unique data set of some 576,000 household photovoltaic systems installed in Germany through 2009. We employ an epidemic diffusion model which includes a spatial dimension, and control for temporal and spatial heterogeneity. According to our results, imitative adoption behavior is highly localized and an important factor for the diffusion of household photovoltaic systems.
