Identification of Perceived Challenges in the Green Energy Transition by Turkish Society through Sentiment Analysis

Abstract

Green energy refers to energy derived from renewable sources such as solar, wind, hydro, and biomass, which are environmentally sustainable. It aims to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and mitigate environmental impacts. In the Turkish context, alongside positive sentiments regarding the establishment of energy plants, there are also prevalent negative perspectives. Societal responses to the transition towards green energy can be effectively gauged through the analysis of individual comments. However, manually examining thousands of comments is both time-consuming and impractical. To address this challenge, this study proposes the integration of the Transformer method, a Natural Language Processing (NLP) technique. This study presents a defined NLP procedure that utilizes a multi-labeled NLP model, with a particular emphasis on the analysis of comments on social media classified as “dirty text”. The primary objective of this investigation is to ascertain the evolving perception of Turkish society regarding the transition to green energy over time and to conduct a comprehensive analysis utilizing NLP. The study utilizes a dataset that is multi-labeled, wherein emotions are not equally represented and each dataset may contain multiple emotions. Consequently, the measured accuracy rates for the risk, environment, and cost labels are, respectively, 0.950, 0.924, and 0.913, whereas the ROC AUC scores are 0.896, 0.902, and 0.923. The obtained results indicate that the developed model yielded successful outcomes. This study aims to develop a forecasting model tailored to green energy to analyze the current situation and monitor societal behavior dynamically. The central focus is on determining the reactions of Turkish society during the transition to green energy. The insights derived from the study aim to guide decision-makers in formulating policies for the transition. The research concludes with policy recommendations based on the model outputs, providing valuable insights for decision-makers in the context of the green energy transition.