Mind the Gap: Supply-side Effects on Differential Diffusion in the Household Energy Technologies Market

Climate change mitigation demands the rapid uptake of renewable energy technologies. These technologies can have significant benefits for adopters and the surrounding communities. There are concerns, however, that differential diffusion of these technologies could reproduce and deepen inequalities along existing dimensions of social difference. We extend organizational scholarship on diffusion by focusing on how supply-side organizational practices affect distributional outcomes in emerging markets. We argue that firms’ decisions about marketing and distributional strategies for new products fundamentally shape the pool of early adopters. These marketing strategies reflect not only market conditions but also specific cultural assumptions about likely early adopters – who they are and where they live. We examine these ideas in the context of the residential solar photovoltaics (PV) market in New York State. Door-to-door solicitation remains the dominant mode of marketing solar PV and has potential for structuring the pattern of diffusion, as installers strategically select neighborhoods for canvasing. Using installation data to infer marketing strategies, we find that solar installers respond to government incentives by intensifying their activity at times and in places where financial support is high. Results from statistical models further suggest that installers’ early marketing campaigns are more likely to target neighborhoods that are higher income and majority-white, although patterns differ somewhat across regions. Such supply-side dynamics can set in motion path-dependent processes that entrench inter-group disparities in the adoption rates of renewables. We discuss implications of our study for the prospects of an equitable energy transition and for organizational theories of diffusion.