Photovoltaic Solar Energy: From Fundamentals to Applications, First Edition. Edited by Angèle Reinders, Pierre Verlinden, Wilfried van Sark, and Alexandre Freundlich. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Companion website: www.wiley.com/go/reinders/photovoltaic_solar_energy People’s Involvement in Residential PV and their Experiences Barbara van Mierlo Department of Social Sciences, Knowledge, Technology and Innovation, Wageningen University, the Netherlands 13.2.1 Introduction In the novel Solar by Ian McEwan, Professor Michael Beard accepts a position as the head of a renewable energy research centre and, after the failure with a small‐scale wind turbine, ends up developing photovoltaics. He sees the job as an opportunity to increase his income and has no interest in the solar energy technology whatsoever. In the, at times, hilarious descriptions of the professor’s lectures all over the world, the readers of the book learn more about his digestion system than a PV system. This is in stark contrast to what PV advocates expect from people with space available for solar panels on their rooftops or balconies. The latter are addressed as potentially inter- ested in PV, willing to consider and buy PV as a benign alternative to fossil fuel‐generated electricity. Reduction of costs is often seen as the most essential factor to motivate not only the small group of frontrunners driven by environmental concerns, but to reach a larger group of consumers as well. Once grid parity 1 is reached, the main barrier to social acceptance of photovoltaics is removed. The first houses with grid‐connected photovoltaic systems appeared in the USA in the 1980s as a response to the oil crisis when utilities started experimenting with this new source of electricity. The built environment has remained a major application domain ever since; the physical infrastructure is almost readily available and it consists of a large market of residents. In the past couple of years, the number of solar homes has risen greatly. Estimations for the 1 Grid parity occurs when a renewable source generates electricity at a cost that is less than or equal to the price of purchasing power from the electricity company or utility. 13.2 For personal use only