Background: Although, solar energy is abundant, accessible, affordable, and ecologically and environmentally friendly, in rural Ethiopia the majority of households are still using pollutant kerosene for lightning. It is important to understand demand and supply-side factors affecting the adoption of the technology. For this purpose, this study investigates the factors influencing household adoption of solar home system (SHS). Methodology: The data used for the econometric model was collected from randomly selected 228 adopters and 143 non-adopter households in Baso Liben district, Amhara region of Ethiopia. The logistic regression model was applied to examine the factors affecting household adoption of solar home system. Results: The finding of this study shows significant variation in many socioeconomic and demographic characteristics between adopters and non-adopters of solar home system. The result of the binary logistic regression model indicated that as income of household increase, their propensity to adopt solar home system also increases. Likewise, participation in off-farm income activities, house type, educational status, training access, media access, and prior knowledge positively correlated with the adoption of SHS. On the other hand, gender and access to electricity are negatively associated with the adoption of SHS. Conclusion: Policy measures should create awareness through training, education, and information access or better media availability, and improving the economic status of households through creating lucrative off-farm income-earning opportunities to achieve enhanced adoption of the solar home system.

Solar home system is a promising energy option for households living in off-grid areas of developing countries. However, household inclination towards consuming such clean energy is hampered by numerous factors. This study is motivated by the absence of more in-depth empirical studies on factors determining households' attitudes towards using SHS. By filling this gap, this study intends to generate informed policy recommendations. For this purpose, we used data generated from 228 adopted and 143 non-adopted households living in Basoliben district, northern Ethiopia by applying mixed data collection approaches. The ordered logistic regression model was employed to estimate factors influencing households' attitudes towards SHS. The findings reveal that being male household heads is 2.6% and 3.2% more likely to have unfavorable and neutral attitudes respectively and 5.9% less likely favorable attitudes towards SHS. As income increase by one Birr, households are about 8.2% more likely to have a favorable attitude towards SHS, and 3.8% and 4.4% less likely to have unfavorable and neutral attitudes towards SHS respectively. Households having a cell phone are 3% and 5.5% less likely to be in the unfavorable and neutral attitude category respectively and 8.5% more likely to be in the favorable attitude category. Likewise being accessed with media is 4.2% and 6.9% less likely they have unfavorable and neutral attitudes respectively, and 11% more likely they have a favorable attitude towards SHS. Moreover, households who attained training are 3% and 5% less likely they have unfavorable and neutral attitudes respectively, and are 8% more likely to have a favorable attitude towards SHS. The finding of this study suggests that improving the economic status of households, better media access, and training would play a crucial role in creating a positive attitude within rural households to increase the adoption of SHS in rural Ethiopia.

Background: Although solar energy is abundant, accessible, affordable, and ecologically and environmentally friendly, in rural Ethiopia the majority of households are still using pollutant kerosene for lighting. It is important to understand the demand and supply-side factors affecting adoption of technology. For this purpose, this study investigates the factors influencing household adoption of the solar home system (SHS).Methodology: The data used for the econometric model was collected from randomly selected 228 solar home system adopter and 143 non- adopter households in Baso Liben district, Amhara regional state of Ethiopia. The logistic regression model was applied to examine the factors affecting households’ willingness to adopt SHS. Results: The finding of this study shows significant variation in many of the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics between adopters and non-adopters. The result of the binary logistic regression model indicated that as income of a household increase, their propensity to adopt solar home system also increases. Likewise, participation in off-farm income activities, house type, educational status of the head, training access, media access, and prior knowledge of the technology positively correlated with the probability of adoption. On the other hand, the gender of the head (being male) and access to electricity were negatively associated with the adoption of SHS. Conclusion: Therefore, policy measures should create awareness through training, education, and information access or better media availability, and improving the economic status of households through creating lucrative off-farm income-earning opportunities to achieve enhanced adoption of the solar home system.