Shikshan Sanshodhan : Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Abstract: Nagpur is considered as winter capital of Maharashtra. The population, industrialization, use of electric equipments, electric vehicles etc. are fast increasing in Nagpur. All these factors are leading in increase the demand of electricity in Nagpur city. Currently the Nagpur city required 2,894 million units of electricity in year and this requirement will increase to 3,409 million units per year in coming couple of years. This demand cannot be fulfilled by Maharashtra State Electricity Generation Department. Hence to fulfill this need of electricity the Maharashtra State Government come forward with the alternative source of electricity that is solar energy. After installation of solar energy the dependency on Maharashtra State Electricity Generation Department will be reduce and customer can generate their own electricity.

To promote the solar energy in Maharashtra and particularly in Nagpur the Government is providing financial support in way of subsidy up to maximum amount of Rs.78,000 for installing the solar panel of 3 kw. The aim of Government is to reduce the burden of electricity generation and save the natural resources like coal and water. Apart from this government tries to reduce the environmental effect by promoting solar energy. Considering all this factors this is beneficial but it is not getting proper response from the customers as per the government target.

The main aim of this research paper is know in detail about solar promotion scheme of government, perception of consumers on solar energy by taking the demographic factors like age, income, occupation and education into consideration, the factors which affect the willingness of consumers to adopt the solar energy, the factors which attract consumers to adopt solar energy like financial assistance, subsidy and financial benefits, the barriers and challenges of promotion of solar energy scheme like knowledge, cost of installation, cost of maintenance and delay in installation and to check the effectively of government to promote this scheme.

The present study is based on the primary data which has collected through structured questioner, personal in-deep interviews and discussion with the respondents. The responses of 357 respondents have been considered for this study. The secondary data is also been collected from the books, newspapers, online news, websites of government agencies, publication of past research, relevant research papers etc. The conclusion of the study has been drawn by using frequency analysis, percentage, Chi-Square Method, Inova Method and Multiple Linear Regression.  This research paper identified the reasons why consumers are attracting towards the establishment of solar panel, what factors create the willingness among the customers for installing solar panel and what challenges they face at the time of installation of solar energy.