Feeding the future with clean energy: poultry farmers’ adoption of renewables

Renewable energy is essential for mitigating climate change, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and strengthening energy security and promoting sustainable development. As an energy-intensive sector, poultry farming must shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy to meet current and future energy demands. This study employed a quantitative, cross-sectional survey to examine factors influencing poultry farmers’ intentions to adopt renewable energy in Bushehr Province, Iran. This study integrates the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), with TAM explaining attitudes through perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, and TPB explains intention through attitude, subjective norms, and Perceived behavioral control. Structural equation modeling using maximum likelihood estimation in AMOS showed that perceived usefulness, attitude, and perceived behavioral control significantly and positively influence farmers’ adoption intentions. Perceived ease of use also positively affects perceived usefulness, which in turn shapes attitudes toward renewable energy. These findings highlight the need to increase awareness of the benefits and efficiency of renewable technologies in poultry farming, provide financial support for high-cost technologies through national and international funding schemes, and encourage future research that incorporating value-based theoretical models.