Willingness to Pay for Renewable Energy in Myanmar: Energy Source Preference
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energies-14-01505-v2.pdf
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3.32 MB
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d589dfe646fa8a8991b340ecab8aeb1d
Author(s)
Numata, Masako
Sugiyama, Masahiro
Swe, Wunna
del Barrio Alvarez, Daniel
Date Issued
March 9, 2021
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Citation
Energies 14 (5): 1505 (2021)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The increased use of renewable energy is imperative as a countermeasure to climate change. As with conventional electricity generation technologies, public acceptance of renewables is an important issue, and willingness to pay (WTP) is a widely used indicator to assess such public attitudes. Unfortunately, the literature to date mostly covers developed countries, with few WTP surveys in developing countries. Tackling climate change is an urgent issue for these developing countries; therefore, understanding of public attitudes toward renewables in developing countries is crucial. This study conducted the first survey on WTP for introducing renewable energy in Myanmar. Although Myanmar boasts abundant renewable energy resources, including solar power and biomass in addition to large-scale hydro plants, its resources are not being properly utilized to generate electricity. This study surveyed WTP for power generation by solar photovoltaics, small hydropower, and biomass facilities. The results showed the highest WTP for solar power (USD 1.92) with 10% share in the energy mix, and lower WTP for biomass and small hydropower electricity generations (USD 1.13 and USD 1.17, respectively). Careful public communication is thus crucial for expanding biomass and small-scale hydro power plants.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Joint Program on the Science & Policy of Global Change
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Creative Commons Attribution
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3390/en14051505
