Week 03 · September 7–9
Design the comparison.
Use solar adoption to connect an environmental-policy question to observable outcomes, plausible mechanisms, defensible comparisons, and the limits of available data.
Mon & Wed · 12:30–1:45 PM South 227B
Note
Office hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:45–3:15 PM, in South 227B—immediately after class.
This week
Outcome
- Distinguish technical solar potential from observed adoption.
- Define what an adoption measure captures—and what it leaves out.
- Choose a unit of observation that matches the research question.
Mechanism
- Connect incentives, costs, credit constraints, and access to variables.
- Separate an explanatory mechanism from a descriptive pattern.
- State the assumptions required by the proposed comparison.
Evidence
- Audit geographic coverage, missingness, timing, and denominators.
- Compare places without overstating what the data establish.
- Record the next evidence needed for the research design.
Lecture slides
Classwork
Classwork 2: Audit Solar Adoption Before Comparing Places
Classwork 3: Measure Rooftop Suitability, Not Adoption
Use the two classworks to compare an observed deployment measure with NREL’s modeled physical-opportunity measure before making geographic or policy claims.
By the end of Week 3
Prepare a compact research-design note containing:
- one refined solar-adoption question;
- the outcome, unit of observation, and comparison of interest;
- one proposed mechanism and the variables needed to examine it; and
- one important limitation or alternative explanation.