Abstract
The clean energy source for domestic consumption has been increasing globally. Ethiopia is in the equator experiences enough solar energy which provides an excellent opportunity for solar energy utilization. Despite the huge potential of solar energy in the study area, adoption of the technology is limited by different factors. Hence, the purpose of the present investigation was to explore the household energy use pattern in the study area and determine the factors that affect the adoption of solar energy technologies for domestic usage at the household level. Random sampling techniques were employed to identify the sample households for data collection using semi-structured questionnaires.
Three hundred thirty-eight households were from a target population of 3,640 households. Descriptive and separate regression equations were used to investigate the influence of household head characteristics and economic factors on the adoption of solar power technology. The result revealed that households were consumed large proportion of 228,540Kg year- animal dung, 111,488Kg year -1firewood, and 56,940 Kg yaer-1charcoal source for baking and cooking purposes while 168.27Kg year - 1crop residues were the least used and most households use the solar lantern for lighting. The findings indicate that the adoption of solar energy technology is very low with only 6.2% of the household uses a solar home system in the three study Kebeles. The result revealed that households with age, number of families, cash income, and number of livestock owned showed statistically (+) effect. On the other hand, Kerosene user and the price of technology influence negatively to solar energy technology adoption in the study area. The study revealed that there is a lack of technically skilled person, lack of solar energy technology availability, and spare parts, off-grid rural dwellers, back to dark. It is recommended that government officials, government, NGOs and concerned stakeholders should focus on creating awareness, create incentives and subsidies, and support the government in building capacity to the dwellers in using solar energy and integrating it with biogases technology for domestic consumption.
Keyword: Energy consumption, off-grid solution, Renewable, solar home system, Tigrai