Challenges to Consumers Practices toward Renewable Energy in Household from a Socio-technical Perspective

Energy has always been a major source of human beings and has depended on it for survival and productive activities. Conventional energy sources (eg: fossil fuel) will cause pollution, and their use will degrade the environment but renewable energy is environmentally friendly. However, renewable energy acceptance level in social aspect has been challenging because of cheaper alternative energy. This research aims to identify the perception among Malaysian households towards renewable energy and to investigate social and technical challenges that effect consumer intention to apply renewable energy in households. The data were analysed using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach. The findings provide a deeper understanding of the consumer intention to integrate renewable energy in households by combining socio-technical perspectives (Facilitating Technical Conditions, Perceived System Quality, Social Trust and Social Support) with the Theory of Planned Behavior model (TPB model, including Attitude, Subjective Norm, Perceived Behavioral Control and Intention). The extended TPB model was tested using PLS-SEM. The research findings revealed that attitude is the best analyst of intention to apply renewable energy in the household. Subjective norm also has a significant predictive ability. However, perceived behavioural control is not a significant variable in forecasting the intention to apply renewable energy in the household.