Confirmatory factor analysis and application to wind energy scale

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is a highly sophisticated technique used in the analysis of advanced statistical tests based on the testing of theories of hidden (unobservable) variables. The CFA, which is usually used in scale development or validity analyzes, aims to verify a predefined or edited structure. In this study, an application example was presented in this field by giving information about wind energy which is more preferred in recent years depending on the increasing demand for renewable energy sources. In this context, a 10-item wind energy scale developed by J. Fergen and Jeffrey B. Jacquet (2016) was applied on university students and the results were evaluated by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The purpose of the study is to evaluate whether students who have different socioeconomic characteristics and who read the 1th, 2th, 3th and 4th grades of the university by applying the wind energy scale and validated and confirmatory factor analysis of the scale, to gain Turkish language. Explanatory factor analysis in the first section, confirmatory factor analysis in the second section, theoretical information about the wind energy in the third section are given and finally the application section about the wind energy scale is given in the fourth section. In practice, the validity of the wind energy scale and whether it has been verified has been examined. As a result of the analyzes made, it was observed that validity and validity of the scale were confirmed by supporting the determined hypotheses. In addition, it is observed that the results of the analyzes show that the scale has a two-factor structure. On the other hand, compliance statistics are calculated at a desired level as a measure of whether the measurement model is an acceptable model. Key words: Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Explanatory Factor Analysis, Wind Energy, Wind Energy Scale