Analysis of Barriers to the Development of Renewable Energy Technologies at the Farm Level: A Farmer’s Perspectiv

Considering the importance of renewable energy technologies in reducing global climate changes and carbon dioxide emissions in agriculture, the present study seeks to analyze the barriers to the development of renewable energy technologies at a farm level from the perspective of farmers. The research was done using the confirmatory factor analysis method. The statistical population of the study consisted of 2501 farmers in Larestan county, Fars province, Iran. The individuals were selected by the stratified random sampling method, and the sample size was estimated to be 331 according to Morgan and Kerjesian tables. According to the findings, the farmers believed that the main obstacles to the development of renewable energy technologies in the economic sector were high initial investment costs, lack of financial resources or loans, and inadequate farmers' capital for projects. Next to this economic dimension, there were institutional, legal, social awareness, technological and infrastructural barriers, all of which were confirmed in a confirmatory model using the LISREL software (LISREL8 / 72). Considering that, in our agricultural sector, there is an increase in energy demands and environmental pollution control is one of the important issues nowadays, a number of planned measures are necessary to eliminate the barriers to the development of renewable energy technologies at the farm level.