Assessing the social acceptance of key technologies for the German energy transition

Dorothee Baur,Marcel Weil,Philip Emmerich,Manuel Johann Baumann

doi:10.1186/s13705-021-00329-x

Abstract

BackgroundThe widespread use of sustainable energy technologies is a key element in the transformation of the energy system from fossil-based to zero-carbon. In line with this, technology acceptance is of great importance as resistance from the public can slow down or hinder the construction of energy technology projects. The current study assesses the social acceptance of three energy technologies relevant for the German energy transition: stationary battery storage, biofuel production plants and hydrogen fuel station.MethodsAn online survey was conducted to examine the public’s general and local acceptance of energy technologies. Explored factors included general and local acceptance, public concerns, trust in relevant stakeholders and attitudes towards financial support.ResultsThe results indicate that general acceptance for all technologies is slightly higher than local acceptance. In addition, we discuss which public concerns exist with regard to the respective technologies and how they are more strongly associated with local than general acceptance. Further, we show that trust in stakeholders and attitudes towards financial support is relatively high across the technologies discussed.ConclusionsTaken together, the study provides evidence for the existence of a “general–local” gap, despite measuring general and local acceptance at the same level of specificity using a public sample. In addition, the collected data can provide stakeholders with an overview of worries that might need to be addressed when planning to implement a certain energy project.

Highlights

The widespread use of sustainable energy technologies is a key element in the transformation of the energy system from fossil-based to zero-carbon
As the public will likely be exposed to hydrogen infrastructure in the transport sector the most, we investigate the acceptance of hydrogen refueling stations as one of the key technologies in the current study
The survey was completed by 1247 participants, with the participants being about distributed across the three technologies

Summary

Introduction

The widespread use of sustainable energy technologies is a key element in the transformation of the energy system from fossil-based to zero-carbon. Pulling forward the previous target by 5 years, the government aims to reduce emission by 65% by 2030 and introduced a new target of an 88% reduction by 2040 These ambitious targets affect the CO2 reduction targets in individual sectors, including the transport, energy and building sector up. Resistance sometimes arises when concrete projects are to be realized, such as in the case of power lines or wind farms [9,10,11] In the past, this phenomenon of people approving of energy technologies in general while opposing local energy infrastructure projects has been referred to as the “not in my backyard” (nimby) phenomenon [12, 13]. Recent research has proven nimby explanations to be too simplistic to explain the motivations for opposition to energy projects [14], and has put forward some recommendations to examine whether a general–local gap exists, which we will outline further below

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