MODEL DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION TOWARDS RENEWABLE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT (PPRED) IN MALAYSIA: AN EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS (EFA) AND CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS (CFA) STUDIES.

Abstract

Due to the absence of specific instrument in measuring public participation of renewable energy in
Malaysia, this research paper has been conducted to develop and validate the instruments of Public
Participation towards Renewable Energy Development (PPRED) model using validation study. The
instruments of PPRED model includes the public willingness to pay (WTP) for energy generated from RE,
public awareness on RE (ARE), degree of knowledge on RE (KRE), willingness to adopt RE technology
(WTA), environmental concern (EC) and attitude towards RE usage (AURE). The PPRED model is used to
measure the public willingness to pay (WTP) for energy generated from RE sources and the factors that
influenced the public WTP. Based on usable questionnaire of 172 respondents, an exploratory factor
analysis (EFA) is used to assess the factors structures. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with 154
usable questionnaires is used to test the unidimensionality of measurement model. The items’ discriminant
and convergence are measured using correlation. Finally, Cronbach’s Alpha is used to measure the
internal consistency between items. Using EFA, six variables were extracted while the model
unidimensionality, discriminant and convergence validity and internal consistency of reliability for PPRED
model were validated using CFA. Thus, these results provided evidence that the PPRED instruments are
reliable and valid instruments to be used in final data collection. Since the items for six variables that are
estimated by EFA may seen as relatively small, future studies with more items for each of the variables
could be constructed to enhance the usability of the instrument.