Romania Residents’ Attitude Investigation toward the Transition to Renewable Energy Sources through Importance-Performance Analysis

Abstract

Romania, like the whole world, is facing a sustainable development challenge that now takes the form of the energy transition towards renewable energy sources. This transition also addresses industrial consumers as well as domestic consumers. The number of household prosumers of electrical energy from renewable sources reached above 63,000 in Romania in 2023, but there is a slowdown in the process with dissatisfaction from residents. The present research covers a gap in the specialty literature by investigating the perception of Romanian residents (from two cities, Oradea and Timișoara) regarding renewable energy sources and the barriers they identify to the adoption of these sources. The research enjoys a consistent sample of 1098 valid responses. The research method is the survey through a questionnaire applied with an operator and the use of a mix of data processing techniques, namely Importance-Performance Analysis with RStudio202207.1+554 and qualitative processing with Atlas.ti22. The results obtained are categorical by corroborating the two methods, which show valid results that express the position of the respondents. Immediate strategic measures that the Romanian state can take to remove barriers and accelerate the process of adopting renewable energy sources are suggested.