Status of energy utilization and factors affecting rural households' adoption of biogas technology in north-western Ethiopia

Abstract

and heating while the remaining 17.6% of the households have been using biogas energy. The kerosene lamp, battery cell, small size solar panel, and biogas were energy sources for lighting. The higher installation costs, inadequate water availability, shortage of cow dung, and lack of awareness were the main factors that hinder biogas installation in the study site. An independent sample t-test result revealed a statistically significant mean difference of the average time spent (in hours) to collect fuelwood per week between biogas technology adopters (M = 9.563, SD = 4.697) and non-adopters (M = 11.887, SD = 4.703; t (180) = 2.539, p = 0.012). In addition, findings of the binary logistic regression showed that education, access to markets, heads of cattle, and electronic media were the principal factors affecting biogas technology adoption significantly in the study area.