This paper explores the experiences of solar energy consumers at Natore District of Bangladesh. The research questions of the study are (i) What are the benefits and challenges of using solar energy in Natore District?; (ii) How do environmental variations impact consumers’ experiences of using solar energy in Natore District?; and (iii) How do government agencies’ decisions influence consumers’ choices of solar energy usage in Natore District? The research is carried out as a mixed-method study with sample survey of 120 participants and 8 in-depth interviews. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed for the quantitative part whereas a thematic content analysis was performed in the qualitative part. The factors and themes were predefined based on the factors identified in the theory of Diffusion of Innovation by Everett M. Rogers [1]: Relative advantage, Compatibility, Complexity, Trialability and Observability. Results and findings of the study show the user experiences and adoption of SHS based on the themes and impact of government’s initiatives and policies. The results and findings from quantitative and qualitative data confirmed successful triangulation.

• Solar energy; Renewable energy; Solar Home System; Consumer’s experience; Diffusion of Innovation

Rahman MS, Okuogume AA (2026) Consumers’ Experiences of Using Solar Energy at Natore District in Bangladesh. JSM Environ Sci Ecol. 14(1): 1110.

DOI: Diffusion of Innovation; CFA: Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Renewable energy is gaining more attention all over the world in recent years. If we want to achieve environmental sustainability with sufficient supply of energy, renewable energy is significantly important which can help to preserve the environment by offering the most viable alternative to fossil energy [2]. This study explored consumers’ experiences related to renewable energy in the Natore District of Bangladesh. This is a very relevant and timely study considering the reality as Bangladesh is a country that shows strong commitment to sustainability issues. In this regard, using renewable energy to produce electricity [3] or heating water [4] can contribute in achieving desired sustainable development outcome. Again, to fight against global warming and future risk of releasing huge amounts of carbon it is important to preserve the natural environment as much as possible. Nonetheless, the unique environmental conditions in the Natore District make this study more justified where the variations in the users experience in different extreme environmental conditions like in the summer, winter or in rainy season have been identified. The consumers’ experiences in relation to the decisions and policies of the government agencies have also been investigated in this study. Although there are several studies on solar energy in different climates, studies on consumer behavior or experience related to this are limited. Through this study, efforts were made to fill up this knowledge gap. Besides, this study focused particularly on the Natore district of Bangladesh as a specific rural context having distinct environmental conditions. It also developed and tested a measurement model for SHS based on DOI theory and combined CFA with qualitative findings from in-depth interview with the intention to get methodological triangulation. Furthermore, this study linked government policies to SHS adoption and user satisfaction. All these elements make this study a timely and relevant study for the academia and for other stakeholders like policymakers, SHS users and service providers as well.

The specific research questions of this study are: (i) What are the benefits and challenges of using solar energy in Natore District?; (ii) How do the environmental variations impact the consumers’ experiences of using solar energy in Natore District?; and (iii) How does government agencies’ decisions influence consumers’ choice of using solar energy in Natore District?

Previous literatures show that Bangladesh has favorable environmental condition for solar energy during the whole calendar year only excluding the dark days [5] . There is a common belief that winter in Bangladesh is not suitable for generating solar energy as sun does not shine for a long time [6] whereas Shekar, et al. [5] identified that winter season along with autumn is more suitable for vertical PV and able to generate more energy than in summer season as the cooler temperature prevents the efficiency losses due to heat. However, Haukkala [6] identified summer as the ideal time for generating solar energy in Bangladesh.

Ecologically aware people tend to choose renewable energy instead of fossil energy to help sustainability [7]. Nevertheless, the household-level (private) consumers of solar energy do not always use them from a sustainability perspective where economic calculation of cost effectiveness also plays a vital role [8]. Solar energy market is experiencing a steady growth in Bangladesh [6] but it is still important to create favorable condition to expand the use of solar energy in Bangladesh [9].

Solar Home Systems (SHS) is already widely recognized for electrification of rural Bangladesh as an intervention to transform the experience of household electricity usage contributing to the adaption of clean energy even at places where the national grid is still unavailable [10,11]. Studies have identified variety of experiences by the users of SHS because of different environmental, economic, social and policy related factors [12-13]. Several studies highlighted different positive impacts of SHS on the rural households’ experience related to electrification including extended study hours contributing to improvement in education, increased welfare for families and enhanced communication facility via information technology or cell phones by charging devices with solar electricity [14-16]. In Bangladesh, SHS also promoted small entrepreneurship by allowing low-cost electricity for their small initiatives providing the opportunity to generate income and get a sustainable livelihood [17-18].

However, although there are several benefits of solar energy, studies also identified some prominent challenges of using SHS in Bangladesh which include high installation cost, technical inefficiencies, and insufficient maintenance services limiting the possibility of long-term adoption [19 20]. Studies also stressed on factor like financial inequality because the rich households are usually more likely to install solar panels compared to the poor households due to the installation and maintenance cost [21]. For the geographically isolated households like riverine, frequent system breakdowns or affordability are the prominent issues or constraints [22-23].

The impact of environmental factors is also closely related to the consumer experience and the reliability of SHS is also recognized in previous studies where the influencing factors are changes in season, variability of weather, and geographical challenges [24]. For instance, in coastal areas that are flood-prone the SHS users experience frequent disruptions because of intrusion of salinity and climatic shocks [17]. On the other hand, in the rural areas of Bangladesh, SHS is proven resilient by enabling the maintenance of lighting and electric connectivity for households even during different natural disasters [18, 25].

The role of government policies also has a considerable impact on shaping SHS acceptance in Bangladesh. Recently, the collaboration of Bangladeshi government with non-government organizations, microfinance institutions and cross-border donors contributed to one of world’s largest programs for off-grid electrification [11, 10]. Government subsidies, output-based aid, and financial schemes have minimized the adoption barriers significantly [11, 26]. Nonetheless, scholars often critique over reliance on government subsidies as it may affect long-term sustainability of SHS [13, 20]. Recent researches stress that government policies have impact not only on the expansion of adoption but also on shaping the users’ satisfaction and choice, such as the transformation into expansion of grid, and centralized supply of electricity has reduced the incentives for SHS adoption in some cases [10].

Diffusion of Innovation Theory

The main focus of the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory by Rogers [1] is to explore how, why, and at what rate new technologies, ideas, or practices which he called innovation are spread in a social system. The theory stresses the importance of innovation features such as: relative advantages, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability; time, communication channels, and social system as influencing factors for adoption of a new innovation. Furthermore, DOI theory explains the process in which a new innovation transfers to widespread acceptance from early adopters pointing out the differences that exist among the adopter’s categories such as: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggard. In this study, the consumer experience and adoption of solar energy by the rural households of Natore, Bangladesh based on five innovation features identified by Rogers have been explained.

Materials and Methods

This study is a mixed-method study combining both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The main reason for choosing this approach is to gain numerical data so that some statistical tests can be used to get more authentic results and at the same time to attain deeper understanding of the users’ experience through the analysis of qualitative data. Having both types of data also allowed triangulation and possibility to get more valid results and findings. In short, we wanted to get the benefits of both quantitative and qualitative methods by minimizing the weakness of one with the strength of other [27]. Both quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed based on the themes derived from the influencing factors of diffusion on innovation theory by Rogers- relative advantages, compatibility, complexity, trailability and observability.

The main goal of quantitative analysis was to test the model. The structured questionnaire was developed based on the features mentioned in the DOI theory. The instrument was a five- point Likert type questionnaire that also included demographic data. First of all, the questionnaire was developed in English and then it was translated into Bangla for getting better responds from the Village people of Bangladesh. A bilingual researcher who is also familiar with renewable energy translated the questionnaire and a second bilingual researcher back translated the Bangla version into English. After getting the data in Bangla, they were again translated into English for analyzing by the same bilingual researchers to ensure the trustworthiness. The data were collected in both ways- online and face-to-face. All the quantitative data were collected in-person, but 4 interviews were conducted online and 4 in-person based on the respondents’ preference and availability. First of all, a pilot study was performed to test the reliability of the instrument where the Cronbach’s alpha was 0.71. In the process of data collection, for the quantitative survey, samples were selected following the simple random sampling technique from the SHS users of Natore. First, a full list of SHS users was prepared with a unique identification number for each user, and then 120 participants were selected using a lottery method. All the quantitative data have been analyzed with SPSS software to find descriptive statistics like percentages where IBM SPSS Amos has been used for Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Measurement Modeling.

Qualitative data has been collected through 8 in-depth interviews with the users of solar energy living in Natore District in Bangladesh. The interview participants have been selected purposively. A checklist and interview guide were developed for the in-depth interviews based on the five attributes of DOI (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability) and other contextual factors like seasonal variations and governmental policies. Interviews lasted between 30-40 minutes. Like the quantitative data collection process, interviews have been conducted and transcribed in Bangla and then translated by a bilingual researcher and checker by other bilingual researcher. A thematic content analysis has been performed where the final themes are deducted from the factors identified in the DOI theory by Rogers. Atlasti helped to organize the interview data and acquire codes and categories from them. Initially the coding was done by the corresponding author and then discussed them with the second author. After discussion between both of the authors, the codes, categories and the themes were finalized. Trustworthiness was maintained by following the checklist, interview guide, and writing systematic memos and cross checking everything by both of the authors. The steps of content analysis that has been followed in this study are: Immersion in the data, Unit of meaning, Condensation, Code, Category, and Theme [28].

The study protocol has been reviewed and approved by the Lapland University of Applied Sciences, Finland before data collection. All the participants were informed about the purpose and objectives of the study and signed written informed consent forms. Participation was voluntary and participants had the right to withdraw any time. No information revealed the identity of the respondents anyhow and all the data were secured with confidentiality.

Quantitative Results

Table 1: Descriptive statistics of respondents’ profile.

Table 1 show that more than 93% of the respondents were male and half of them were aged between 36 and 45. More than 33% respondents’ highest education level is higher secondary where the highest education is Graduate or above for more than 20%, and more than 4% of the respondents have no formal education. More than 40% of the respondents earn BDT 30001 to BDT 40000 monthly. The income details related data was collected to reveal if there is any impact of income or financial condition in adoption. Half of the respondents were using solar energy for 3-5 years (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Steps of qualitative content analysis adapted from Kleinheksel et al. [28].

Measures Reliability and Validity

The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) has been used to test the reliability and validity of the measures which was adopted from the literature.(Table 2)

Table 2: Results of CFA for measurement model.

 demonstrates the results from CFA. The inter-item consistency reliability value of Cronbach’s alpha has been used to get the reliability of the measures. The range of Cronbach’s alpha is from 0.88 to 0.95 which is above the minimum acceptable value of 0.7 according to Nunnally and Bernstein [29], Convergent validity was also examined to reflect the degree to which repeated attempts for measuring the same concept is able to produce consistent results. Factor loadings, composite reliability and average variance extracted were calculated to measure convergent validity as suggested by Hair, Black, Babin, and Anderson [30]. Factor loading for all the items exceeded the minimum recommended value of 0.6 according to Chin, Gopal, and Salisbury [31]. The composite reliability results, which show the degree to which a construct indicators represent the latent is ranged from 0.74 to 0.94 that exceeded the minimum recommended value of 0.7 according to Hair, Ringle, and Sarstedt, [32]. The average variance extracted, reflecting the extent to which latent constructs accounts for the variance in its indicators is ranged between 0.70 and 0.81, which exceeded the minimum threshold of 0.5 as suggested by Hair, et al. [32]. Additionally, discriminant validity is calculated by the comparison of squared correlations between constructs and variance extracted for a construct.

Table 3: Discriminant validity of constructs.

(Table 3) confirms adequate discriminant validity as the squared correlations for each construct remains lower than the average variance extracted by the indicators. Overall, the measurement model demonstrates quite good reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity.

The CFA model demonstrates an overall satisfaction to excellent level of fit across several indices. The absolute fit indices indicate a strong relation between the data and the model with a CMIN/DF value of 1.44 and an RMSEA of 0.06 (90% CI= 0.05-0.08), both remain within the acceptable thresholds. Although GFI (0.82) and AGFI (0.77) are slightly lower than the recommended value of at least 0.90, they are still acceptable for a complex behavioral model. Incremental fit indices demonstrate excellent performance with IFI of 0.96, TLI of 0.96, and CFI of 0.96 all exceeding the recommended cut-off value of 0.95. Parsimony-adjusted indices (PNFI=0.76 and PCHI= 0.83) further show an efficient and balanced model. Information criteria, including AIC (430.10) and ECVI (2.62) are remarkably lower than those of independence model which further indicated towards a superior comparative fit. Hoelter’s critical N values (97 at p = 0.05; 103 at p = 0.01) indicate adequate sample support. To summarize, the measurement model exhibited strong psychometric adequacy (Table 4, Figure 2).

Figure 2 CFA Measurement Model.

Table 4: Goodness of fit indices measurement model.

Abbreviations: CMIN/DF= Minimum Discrepancy / Degrees of Freedom; RMR= Root Mean Square Residual; GFI= Goodness of Fit Index; AGFI= Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index; PGFI= Parsimonious Goodness of Fit Index; RMSEA = Root mean square error of approximation; CI = Confidence interval; PCLOSE= P-value for Close Fit; NFI = Normed fit index; RFI = Relative fit index; TLI = Tucker–Lewis index; IFI = Incremental fit index; CFI = Comparative fit index; PRATIO= Parsimony Rati; PNFI= Parsimony Normed Fit Index; PCFI= Parsimony Comparative Fit Index; AIC = Akaike Information Criterion; BIC = Bayesian Information Criterion; CAIC= Consistent Akaike Information Criterion; ECVI= Expected Cross-Validation Index; NCP= Non-Centrality Parameter.

Relative Advantage

The analysis of qualitative data generated themes that are mostly aligned with the five attributed of DOI and also highlight other contextual factors like seasonal variation and government policies and initiatives. Here, the qualitative findings are discussed under the themes- relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, trialability and observability.

Relative advantage emerged as the most prominent as well as multidimensional theme. Respondents consistently cited about their freedom form the national grid which is not reliable and this became the primary motivation for their adoption. Load-shedding, fluctuation of voltage, outage due to environmental issued like rain and storm made them frustrated and turned into SHS users. According to interviewee 2,

“Whenever storms or heavy rain occur, electricity from the national grid often goes out, but my electricity supply remains uninterrupted. Even when the nearby houses remain dark, the lights in my house is still on.”

Financial benefits found as equally important reason behind adoption as respondents reported about reduction in monthly electricity bills from approximately BDT 2000 to BDT 400-500 after the installation of SHS. Environmental benefits like- being smokeless, noiseless, pollution free are also important perceived advantages of SHS which is also consistent with the findings from Urmee and Harries [20] in their study in South Asian context. Unlike previous studies, this study found SHS supportive for local small entrepreneurs by making low-cost uninterrupted energy supply for their initiatives.

Compatibility

SHS demonstrated very compatibility with the lifestyles, local climatic conditions, and household values of the participants. None of the respondents reported any need for modification in their habits or daily routines to accommodate the technology. Instead, several among the participants described the SHS as fully companionable with their family life, like interviewee 5 said,

“This system has become so integrated into our family life that it feels difficult to imagine living without it”

Bangladesh has an average 9-10 hours of sunlight everyday which is very much favorable for SHS. Children’s enhanced educational continuity was also identified as a overarching welfare benefit for the participants. According to Interviewee 3,

“My children are able to expand the study time at night or evening without extra cost even during the power cut or load-shedding from the national power grid.”

All these findings show high compatibility and are consistent with with the claims by Mondal and Klein [16].

Complexity

Complexity became a conditional one rather than being an absolute barrier. Everyday operation of SHS was widely described by the respondents as easy and straightforward and whereas, maintenance or replacement of battery or any other repairing or servicing was found notably difficult for the technologically inexpert users. Interviewee 1 said,

“Once the battery of my SHS damaged, and I did not understand why. Later, after consulting a technician, I came to know that it happened because I was irregular in refilling the battery water.”

The installation cost that ranges from BDT 11000 for the basic SHSs to BDS 50000-60000 for the larger systems seems higher for the lower income porting of the people. This high installation cost remains as the most significant barrier of adoption for the lower-income households confirming the findings of Knandker, et al. [14]. Reduction of production during the foggy season and shortage of efficient technicians in rural area further hardens the long-term maintenance though most of the participants identified the environmental variation as manageable.

Trialability and Observability

Trialability and observability functions as self reinforcing accelerator for diffusion at the community level. Most of the respondents followed a trajectory of incremental trajectory- beginning with a basic, small capacity SHS and then expanding it with the enhancement in confidence level. As interviewee 7 mentioned

“I first invested in a small solar system- enough to run two lights and charge a mobile phone. After using it, I felt confident about expanding the system.”

Observability found as equally powerful attribute as trialability where many among the participants first observed the adoption situation and then decided for themselves. One of the respondents reported that 10-12 of his neighbours adopted SHSs after observing its performance at his household. Solar street lightings installed by the government also enabled community level visibility further accelerating the peer-driven decision on adoption.

Impacts of Government Agency’s Initiative or Decision

Respondents reported that government initiatives like solar street lighting projects contributed to the normalization of the SHS technology and demonstrated its reliability practically. However, there was a notable concern about the quality of SHS that were distributed by the government but the subsidy given by the government played a positive role in adoption. People expect more support from the government as Interviewee 2 mentioned,

“If the government allows people to purchase systems through installment plans, customers can pay using the amount they typically spend on monthly electricity bills.”

Respondents also demanded technical training for the local people, awareness campaigning and district- level pilot projects. They also reported that the local administrative are not enough supportive in terms of timely and responsible responding.

In this section, all the quantitative results and qualitative findings are discussed under the themes extracted from the DOI theory. Both quantitative and qualitative results and findings work here to support or complement each other for the purpose of triangulation. The discussion continues based on the five factors mentioned in the diffusion of innovation theory. Then the section will also focus on the government policy matters.

Relative Advantage

To answer the first research question, both quantitative and qualitative data strongly confirm the relative advantage as the most influential factor in the adoption of SHS. The confirmatory factor analysis also shows excellent psychometric properties for this construct (α = 00.95, AVE = 0.70) with the factor loading range of 0.74-0.91, indicating consumers’ multiple advantages of adopting SHS. In the qualitative findings, the major relative advantage is the uninterrupted power supply by the SHS as an alternative to the national grid, particularly during the period of environmental hazards which was also found in previous studies like the studies of Hossain. et al. [18] and Shapna, et al.[25]. Moreover, both quantitative and qualitative results and findings acknowledge the financial benefits of solar energy like no or lower amount of monthly electricity bill which is aligned with the claim by [8]. SHS is also found as an environment friendly energy source supporting small entrepreneurs by providing low-cost electricity to them like Huq [17] and Hossain, et al. [18]. The current study identified the role of SHS in supporting the small scale local level entrepreneurship in Natore district where affordable electricity for small business workplaces and shops get the opportunity to diversify local livelihoods which is underrepresented in the existing studies. From both quantitative results and qualitative findings, relative advantage is the most important driver for SHS adoption.

Compatibility

Answering the second research question, the compatibility construct gained strong reliability and validity (α = 0.92, AVE = 0.74) with higher factor loading, particularly for items regarding household needs (0.92) and environmental sustainability. Qualitative findings also confirm the compatibility of solar energy systems with the household needs and the climatic realities of Bangladesh. The integration of both quantitative and qualitative findings identified two dimensions of compatibility- environmental compatibility and household compatibility. The respondents considered sunlight due to longer day time as the main factor here. Nonetheless, this is a critical finding as it differs with other study like that of Sarker, et al. [24]. Which is skeptical about the environmental compatibility. However, SHS is also found as compatible with the household needs in the rural Bangladesh because of making electricity available for remote places where connecting to the national grid is still difficult or expensive which was also acknowledged in the study of Cabraal, et al. [10].

Complexity

The complexity construct demonstrates mixed findings, revealing the distinction between simplicity in operating and systemic barriers behind adoption. In quantitative results, this construct gained acceptable reliability and validity (α = 0.89, AVE = 0.74) along with strong factor loadings for ‘ease of operation’ related items (0.88) and ‘maintenance simplicity’ related items (0.88). Besides, qualitatively users mentioned the operation and maintenance of solar panels as easy and user-friendly. Nevertheless, there are significant challenges indicating the complexity such as: the cost of installation, maintenance and servicing is not easily affordable for the lower income group which is also supported by literatures [19, 20]. So, the rich households are more likely to install SHS due to their financial advantage [21]. This study found scarcity of technical assistance or skilled technicians is making it more difficult to omit barriers of SHS adoption. Sometimes, slow response from administration contributed to slower adoption. This study identifies two types of complexities- use complexity and access complexity. Use complexity is low as the regular use and maintenance is easy. However, the access complexity is high for the lower-income households. This finding suggests that the rich households are disproportionately positioned in case of overcoming the access complexity again point the question of energy justice and equity dimension. This section also answers the first research question in more detail.

Trialability

The trialability construct, in quantitative results, gained strong psychometric properties (α = 0.89, AVE = 0.81), with high factor loadings for items regarding ‘visiting demonstration centers’ (0.94) and ‘possibility to test temporarily’ (0.92). Qualitative findings also confirm the mechanisms to ensure trialability of SHS. In multiple cases users initially installed SHS in small-scale, and then expanded the capacity or express the willingness to do so after observing the performance for a certain period of time which indicated that user satisfaction is a key aspect of adoption in a large scale. This construct also focus on the adoption process answering the first research question partially.

Observability

The observability construct, which is also related to a partial answer to the first research question, demonstrates good reliability and validity (α = 0.88, AVE = 0.79) along with a high factor loading range (0.87-0.90) across all the items. Both quantitative and qualitative findings support each other by identifying the impact of visible results in shaping the SHS adoption decision. Users of SHS decided to adopt it after observing the performance of solar energy systems in different places like friend’s or neighbor’s house, or street lights. The positive changes in electricity supply is clearly visible for the surrounding people making them positive about SHS. Financial benefits like savings also have positive impacts on the adoption decision. All these findings are consistent with the claim of the diffusion of innovation theory that visible results are an accelerating factor for diffusion.

Impacts of Government Agency’s Initiative or Decision

To answer the third research question, both quantitative results and qualitative findings revealed an important and multifaceted role of the government in shaping the adoption decision. The qualitative findings show that government initiatives like promotion programs or subsidies have positive impacts on adoption although literatures are doubtful about the long-term effects of subsidies [13, 20]. However, this study could not resolve the existing skepticism about this subsidy issue. Findings also identified pilot projects by government or private sectors as helpful for adoption.

This paper demonstrates the experience of SHS users of Natore District in Bangladesh and generalized the results though CFA measurement model having a strong psychometric adequacy with a satisfactory model fit and strong reliability and validity measures. Qualitative findings were also well-matched with the quantitative results showing triangulation. The results and findings of this study reconfirm that the five DOI factors [1] are still relevant and powerful tools to predict technology adoption. 

The major limitation of this study was its small sample size and excluding the system and/or service providers from the sample. Including some non-users as respondents may also give some new insights in getting the holistic picture. Furthermore, 93.3% of the sample of this study were male, which is a major limitation from the gender perspective restricting the interpretability from the context of women. This limitation also reflects the reality of the patriarchal household system of rural Bangladesh, where the household’s representativeness and the decision making authority go to the male members in general. Here, the study failed to identify whether there are any benefits or challenges specifically from the women’s perspective. Nevertheless, this cross-sectional study collected all the data from a single point of time, limiting the results from revealing the adoption trajectory over time or the user satisfaction patterns in long term.

The selection of Natore District as the research area is also a limitation that hinders the generalizability to other regions of the country. However, we also consider this limitation positively, because it allows us to get contextual depth, as the study was focused on a small geographical location. Further studies may be done to overcome these limitations. In the further studies, the sample size should be increased to perform the structural equation modeling for calculating the hypothesized relationships between the constructs related to the diffusion of innovation theory and the dependent variable. Longitudinal studies exploring the long-term user experience and the pattern or level of user satisfaction over time could also be valuable addition.

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