Determining the factors affecting the university students' intention to adopt renewable energy using the structural equality model based on planned behavior theory

Renewable energy (RE) has gained importance in the world, especially in the last 10 years. In parallel with this rising interest, the share of RE in the energy supply is increasing in Turkey. However, reaching the targeted emission level in Paris Agreement in the context of the climate crisis and ensuring supply diversity by increasing the share of RE, as specified in the 11. Development Plan, is not possible unless individuals and households adopt RE. This situation is noticed by international organizations and governments, and therefore various participation and incentive mechanisms are created for small investors in RE. At this point, the question of which factors are effective in individuals' adoption of renewable energy comes to mind and the necessity of determining these factors arises. Based on this requirement, in this thesis, the determinants of renewable energy adoption intentions were examined using structural equation modelling in the context of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Higher education students were preferred as the target group in the study because there are studies in the literature showing that the idea and awareness about RE are closely related to the level of education and that university students have higher awareness compared to other target groups. Therefore, university students were chosen as the target audience in this study. The reason why we used TPB in our study is that it is one of the most used theories to predict intention. Within the scope of the analysis to be applied in this thesis, an online questionnaire was applied to 418 students studying at associate, undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels. Two different models were used with the data obtained. In the first model, only the main elements of TPB, Attitude, Subjective Norm, and Perceived Behaviour Control, were tested using the structural equation model. In the second one, in addition to attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control, Belief about the Benefits of Renewable Energy, Moral Values and Norms, Perception of Environmental Participation, Awareness about Renewable Energy, and Renewable Energy Costs variables were added to the model. Thus, the Extended Theory of Planned Behaviour was obtained. The second model was evaluated with Path Analysis, a special case of SEM. In conclusion, the fit indices of the two models gave better results than the acceptable limits, and all our coefficients were statistically meaningful. All hypotheses established in accordance with TPB in the two models couldn't be rejected. It can be said for both models that attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control are good predictors for the intent to the adoption of RE for the sample used. In our second model, which used path analysis, it was revealed that Belief about the Benefits of Renewable Energy and Moral Values and Norms have a direct and statistically meaningful effect on the intention to adopt. On the other hand, Perception of Environmental Participation, Awareness about Renewable Energy, and Renewable Energy Costs have an indirect effect on the intention to adopt.