

Significant peer effects are found in promoting PV-PAPs. Their cognitive process of PV-PAPs consists of three stages, namely information acquisition, perceived acceptance, and cognitive processing, during which the cognitive elements will change up to twice. Results show that rural residents have different cognitions of PV-PAPs, the composition of the cognitive element collection is the fundamental reason for the difference of individual degree of knowledge.

Based on coding technique of grounded theory, principal component analysis, and stepwise multiple linear regression methods, this research explored rural residents' cognition of PV-PAPs as well as quantitatively verified the relationship between the key factors and their adoption willingness.

However, there is a lack of research on the public support and cognitive process of PV-PAPs, and motivations and influencing mechanisms of rural residents' willingness to adopt PV-PAPs still need to be further explored. The photovoltaic poverty alleviation project (PV-PAP) is an innovative policy for renewable energy diffusion and sustainable development achievement in China.
