The economic constraints of adopting renewable energy in farming systems

Abstract

The shift to renewable energy is considered one of the policies that encourage agricultural production and preserve the environment. This paper investigates the constraints that affect the adoption of renewable energy sources in developing countries. A questionnaire was designed to collect the data. The questionnaire's validity and reliability were measured. The questionnaire was distributed on 150 farms. The relative importance index was calculated for the different constraints and the structural equation modeling was used to measure the effect of different factors on the adoption of renewable energy sources. The results showed moderate tendencies of farmers to adopt renewable energy sources. The weight of the different constraints was very close showing that legal and economic constraints were in the first position, followed by infrastructure readiness, installation costs, and maintenance requirements.