Advanced Analytics: Residential Solar PV Diffusion as a Social Process D. Cale Reeves1 and Varun Rai1,2 1LBJ School of Public Affairs 2Department of Mechanical Engineering The University of Texas at Austin Austin Energy Conference, UT Austin Panel 3: Advanced Analytics, 14 April 2018

(of ~174k)= 147.9K Why the Gap? Source: Project Sunroof Data Explorer (February 2017). Solar PV Diffusion as a Social Process Economic explanation leaves a gap

Organic Lidar, Assessor Data Survey Data Organic Lidar, Assessor Data GIS Base-layer 173k individual households Solar PV Diffusion as a Social Process “Growing” the diffusion process

Predicted Adoption Density Solar PV Diffusion as a Social Process Baseline modeling outputs

Simulated Scenarios & Analysis Adoption is one output – What about Non-Adoption? Solar PV Diffusion as a Social Process Simulated policy scenarios and analysis

Diagnostic Density Map Best Target for Info? Non-adopter with enough Cash Best Target for Cash? Non-adopter with enough Info Solar PV Diffusion as a Social Process Diagnostic intervention targeting

Simulating informational interventions Work in progress: Simulating informational interventions Compared to purely economic interventions Inferring agent attitudes from open data Can we build this without surveys? Route-based community detection algorithm Can we better estimate the social ties over which information flows? Solar PV Diffusion as a Social Process Works in progress