Abstract
BackgroundThis paper aims to create insights into people's technology preferences in striving to achieve a low-carbon electricity generation system. The investigation seeks to analyze informed rather than mere opinion-based public preferences towards electricity technologies and portfolios against the background of climate mitigation options. In order to compare Germany with its strong renewable energy focus with a more fossil fuel- and nuclear-oriented country, the study presented replicates a research carried out in the USA in order to deliver data enabling such comparison. A special focus is on assessing attitudes and opinions towards carbon capture and storage as a low-carbon technology option.MethodsA mixed-method focus group approach has been elaborated and applied for 15 focus groups including a total of 130 participants nationwide. The approach first starts off with a traditional focus group design, i.e., discussion rounds with 8 to 10 participants led by a facilitator in order to collect qualitative data. This traditional focus group approach is extended by a quantitative survey design where participants had to fill out several closed-question questionnaires before and during the discussion rounds.ResultsMain quantitative results presented in this article consist of an electricity technology ranking and an electricity portfolio ranking. The results show considerable differences between US and German participants. While nuclear energy and the carbon capture and storage technology option are high ranking in the USA, German participants clearly favor renewable energies.ConclusionsThe comparison made clear that the stated preferences show a country bias, revealing a unique profile of technology and portfolio preferences in the USA and Germany. The policies that lie ahead of society need to find approval by stakeholders and the public at large, and therefore need to integrate acceptance profiles into communication and information activities.
Highlights
This paper aims to create insights into people's technology preferences in striving to achieve a low-carbon electricity generation system
The research presented within this paper investigates public preferences of electricity-generating technologies and future electricity portfolios among German citizens
Biomass lags behind the set of renewable ranking slightly better than natural gas power plants - the latter leading the set of fossil fuel power plants
Summary
This paper aims to create insights into people's technology preferences in striving to achieve a low-carbon electricity generation system. The investigation seeks to analyze informed rather than mere opinion-based public preferences towards electricity technologies and portfolios against the background of climate mitigation options. In order to compare Germany with its strong renewable energy focus with a more fossil fuel- and nuclear-oriented country, the study presented replicates a research carried out in the USA in order to deliver data enabling such comparison. The research presented within this paper investigates public preferences of electricity-generating technologies and future electricity portfolios among German citizens. It replicates a study carried out in Pennsylvania in the USA [1] in order to deliver comparable results between the US and the German case study. The task is to create a balanced combination of various plant types which meet the complex interrelated requirements of technical feasibility, economic and environmental soundness, and social acceptability
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