Adoption, Impacts and Barriers to Decentralised Solar Energy in a Tribal Region: Evidence from Dungarpur and Banswara Districts of Southern Rajasthan, India

Abstract

This study examines the extent and pattern of decentralised solar energy adoption in the predominantly tribal districts of Dungarpur and Banswara in southern Rajasthan, India (twenty villages across ten tehsils), measures its economic and social effects, identifies barriers constraining wider uptake, and assesses whether adoption follows geographical suitability. A cross-sectional household survey was combined with stakeholder interviews and spatial correlation against an independently constructed suitability index. Four hundred respondents were selected using multi-stage stratified random sampling, with tehsils chosen to represent all three classes of a previously constructed Solar Potential Index and villages paired as well-connected and remote. A 42-item schedule covered energy use, awareness, adoption, impacts and barriers, and 24 stakeholders were interviewed. The analysis used percentages, chi-square tests, t-tests, before-and-after comparisons for adopters, and Pearson's correlation between the tehsil-level suitability index and observed diffusion. Only 16.0% of households used any solar system while 44.5% intended to adopt within two years. Solar irrigation pumps accounted for 52.3% of installations, indicating that adoption in this region is predominantly for productive rather than domestic use. Among pump adopters, irrigated area rose 45.8%, cropping intensity 24.6% and net farm income 46.7%, while irrigation expenditure fell 86.6% and weekly night-time irrigation labour fell from 9.4 to 1.2 hours. Awareness declined steeply from general familiarity (56.0%) to knowledge of the application procedure (14.0%). Education, income, gender and holding size were all significantly associated with adoption (P < .01), and the suitability index correlated with observed diffusion at r = 0.70 (P < .01). Affordability emerged as the binding constraint: 59% of willing respondents could contribute no more than Rs. 25,000 against a required farmer share of Rs. 1.0–1.2 lakh. Adoption is therefore limited not by the resource or willingness but by finance, procedural information, maintenance services and grid capacity; in a Fifth Schedule area where land transfer is restricted, community-owned and service-based models are more appropriate than the land-acquisition model used in western Rajasthan.