Of job, skills, and values: Exploring rural household energy use and solar photovoltaics in poverty alleviation areas in China

Based on 1251 household surveys collected in photovoltaic (PV) poverty alleviation areas in rural China, this paper explores the effects of PV cognition including ecological values, perceived behavioural control and social factors on household energy use behaviour by using binary logit regression. The results indicate that: (1) off-farm employment is an important factor influencing household energy choice by reducing the probability of using traditional fossil fuels and increasing the probability of using clean energy; (2) life skills or literacy training and farmers’ cooperatives are beneficial to promoting the use of solar energy, and democratic participation and power supply stability can also promote the use of clean energy, so as to reduce the use of traditional fossil fuels; (3) ecological values and perceived behavioural control have no significant impact on the use of solar energy but show significant positive effects on energy-saving behaviour.