Solar Energy Implementation At Household: Gaza Strip Case Study
Abstract Background: Gaza Strip in Palestine is facing a major power deficiency problem due to local political situation. Thus, powering Gaza Strip without blockage whole day is a challenging task for decision maker. Lack of electrical power required inhabitants of Gaza Strip to implement solar energy systems to power their homes to replace or to complement the traditional sources of energy. To understand the success of solar system adoption at household in Gaza, authors built an electronic questionnaire. The dependent variable is chosen to be the adoption of energy and independent variables are environmental benefit, the cost of adoption of solar energy, and the market value of solar energy measured. The electronic questionnaire consists of two parts: part one consists of personal questions; second part is 22 items on a five- point Likert scale. The study sample consists of the 10% of the study population which are Al-Shifa Medical Complex employees (1819 employees). The electronic questionnaires are electronically circulated to the study sample. Then data is collected and analyzed using SPSS program. Results: The authors found that only 19.5% of the sample install solar energy systems on their houses. The results show that some factor including governorate in which employees are living, house ownership, total cost of energy/month, space to install the space to install the solar panels, and the desire to share the cost with neighbor unaffected the decision to use solar energy. Contrary, the type of house, knowledge of renewable energy impacted the decision. Conclusion: The adoption of solar energy in Gaza is limited. Type of house and knowledge of renewable energy are important to spread using of solar energy at houses in Gaza. Therefore, it is important to spread the knowledge of solar energy through universities by giving classes to all university students or by giving general lecture. To overcome the other two factors, the government should adopt the system and support the local inhabitants.