Developing an online platform for solving information asymmetry in solar photovoltaic business

Abstract

Recently the government of South Korea has driven energy transition policy from fossil fuel to environment-friendly and renewable energy sources. However, it has experienced difficulties in developing and spreading solar photovoltaic(solar PV) industry because of information asymmetry among the participants of solar PV business markets. In particular, the information asymmetry between consumers, who want to start solar PV business, and suppliers, who provide the deployment of solar PV systems, needs to be resolved. To deal with this, first, this paper surveys 800 consumers of solar PV systems, and identifies the types of information, which cause the information asymmetry in their starting solar PV business. Next, it suggests a new online platform model as an online informediary that provides the identified asymmetric information, and it introduces the plan and current status of a project, namely U'sol(www.usolar.co.kr), to implement the suggested platform model. Eventually, this paper contributes to solving the problems, driven by the information asymmetry among the participants of solar PV business markets, and it enable the sound development and spread of the solar PV industry.