Barriers to the Uptake of Renewable Energies in Institutions of Higher Education: Experiences from a Polytechnic in Zimbabwe

There are many financial, institutional, technological and socio-cultural barriers that inhibit institutions of higher education from moving from the pollutant fossil fuels to the renewable energy pathway. But given the prominent position of academia in sustainability studies, it is natural to expect institutions of higher education to take a lead in sustainable practices including clean energy use. The study adopted a qualitative approach and a case study design. Structured interviews were used to collect data from purposively sampled participants which was thematically analysed. This research revealed that social, technological and the lack of policy regulation of the use of renewable energies stood as barriers with a strong sway on the failure of institutional adoption of clean energy. The current higher education landscape which benefits from fossil use, the lack of accountability of institutions to declared commitments and the lack of technical know-how become a hindrance to redirected changes for uptake of solar based solutions. The study recommends that with less polluting and lower tariff energy solutions being made available for adoption to institutions of higher learning, this will create a situation where renewable energy solutions will be an attractive option leading to solar renewable energy uptake.