Here comes the sun… based energy source?!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science…and keeping up with the Jones’s!
Check out the neighbors’ new car! Should I spring for an upgrade? And what’s that happening up on their roof??!!
Christine Horne and Thomas Familia from Washington State University wondered: could those around us influence our views on solar energy?
To find out, they surveyed about thirty-four hundred California homeowners. The subjects were asked if their friends, family, and neighbors had rooftop solar panels. They also asked how interested people were in installing solar technologies on a five-point scale.
Results? Having friends and family who have solar panels makes people more likely to be interested in solar energy. Surprisingly, having solar-using neighbors DOESN’T have quite the same effect!
Households account for about twenty percent of the US’s energy use. Wider adoption of rooftop solar panels COULD help make a dent in greenhouse emissions.
When it comes to families, your relatives’ solar panels could make you “green” with envy. In a good way!
Reference: Source: Horne, C., & Familia, T. (2021). Norms, Norm Sets, and Reference Groups: Implications for Household Interest in Energy Technologies. Socius. https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231211039035