Solar adoption intention in a subsidized energy market: perceived economic benefit and behavioral control in Kuwaiti households

Kuwait combines high solar irradiance with heavily subsidized electricity and negligible residential photovoltaic uptake. That combination limits the transferability of adoption models developed in markets where bill savings drive the decision, and it is under-represented in the behavioral energy literature. This study tests an extended Theory of Planned Behavior model of household intention to adopt residential solar energy, adding social awareness and perceived economic benefit to the attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control triad. A cross-sectional online survey was completed by 255 household respondents in Kuwait in March 2026. Six latent constructs were measured with five-point Likert items adapted from validated scales. Partial least squares structural equation modelling assessed the measurement and structural models, with reliability screening in jamovi 2.5 and model estimation in SmartPLS 4. The measurement model met conventional thresholds for indicator reliability, internal consistency, convergent validity and discriminant validity. Perceived economic benefit predicted attitude (β = 0.597), perceived behavioral control (β = 0.581) and subjective norms (β = 0.552). Attitude (β = 0.403) and perceived behavioral control (β = 0.308) predicted behavioral intention, whereas the direct paths from perceived economic benefit (β = 0.123, p = 0.114), social awareness (β = −0.027, p = 0.577) and subjective norms (β = 0.059, p = 0.387) were not significant. Perceived economic benefit had significant indirect effects on intention through attitude (β = 0.241) and perceived behavioral control (β = 0.179), and a total effect of β = 0.575. The model explained 56.6% of the variance in intention. In a heavily subsidized electricity market, adoption intention appears to form through individual evaluative and control judgements rather than through social influence. Only 10.2% of respondents reported any current solar use against 82.4% expressing future interest, and current use was concentrated in low-demand applications. Permitting procedures and installer availability were not measured; read with previous studies, the perceived behavioral control results suggest that they are plausible policy targets for future work to test directly.