Decarbonization Obstacles in the Context of the Photovoltaic Market Development in Poland From the Social (Prosumers’) Perspective

Abstract

Background: Decarbonization of economies is a key development priority of the European Union. As nonrenewable fuels prevail in Poland’s energy balance, the country has faced serious problems regarding priority implementation for many years. Research objectives: Given the said circumstances, the objective of this article is to identify obstacles to using renewable energy sources (solar energy) from the prosumers’ perspective. Research design and methods: During the research, I used the results of surveys conducted on a representative sample of 754 Polish prosumers. The results underwent an analysis based on descriptive statistics and nonparametric statistical tests, including Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test. Results: The major obstacles to the development of photovoltaics in Poland from the prosumers’ perspective include financial difficulties, mainly the costs of photovoltaic system installation and insufficient state subsidies for such products. Conclusions: Hence, the state activities aimed at promoting decarbonization must consider extending the financial support for photovoltaics, simplifying the procedures to apply for RES funding, and stabilizing the conditions of transaction cost settlements on the photovoltaic market.