Abstract
Solar and wind energy are expected to play a key role in creating a climate-neutral Europe by 2050 and decarbonizing energy production in general, albeit requiring significant deployment. This presupposes that the population accepts such energy sources, thus necessitates understanding how people perceive energy systems. Unlike the abundant literature about wind energy, social acceptance of solar energy has received less attention, especially concerning large solar installations. Opinion polls indicate that solar energy enjoys a high level of socio-political acceptance and is preferred to other renewables, although it is unclear whether this acceptance persists as the technology is deployed on a large scale. This paper helps close this gap by describing the results of a representative survey (n = 601) conducted using a between-subject design to examine how attitudes of the public towards solar energy vary based on the size of installations, how the latter compare to attitudes towards wind energy, and what the role of affect is in the former. Results reveal that the stronger preference for solar power decreases to a similar level as that for wind energy when comparing installation of similar sizes, highlighting that solar energy installations may not easily be scaled up. The study also shows that affect plays an important role in forming people’s attitudes towards wind and solar, especially concerning large-scale installations. This underlines the need for policymakers and project developers, who aim to deploy renewables on a large scale, to attend to the affective component of decision-making.
Highlights
Recent research suggests that investment into climate-friendly policy initiatives may help the world move closer to a net-zero emissions pathway, as targeted in the 2020 European Green Deal [1], and could supply the best economic returns on government spending [2]
This paper helps close this gap by describing the results of a representative survey (n = 601) conducted using a between-subject design to examine how attitudes of the public towards solar energy vary based on the size of installations, how the latter compare to attitudes towards wind energy, and what the role of affect is in the former
Based on a representative survey in Switzerland (n = 601), the present results reveal, through a comparison of small- and large-size solar power installations with wind power in stallations, that the more positive affective reactions and attitudes enjoyed by solar energy significantly decrease as the size of the two technologies is similar
Summary
Recent research suggests that investment into climate-friendly policy initiatives may help the world move closer to a net-zero emissions pathway, as targeted in the 2020 European Green Deal [1], and could supply the best economic returns on government spending [2]. Solar energy is one of the fastest growing energy sources and could contribute substantially to reducing dependence on fossil fuels and decreasing global CO2 emissions [3]. Concerning the actual implementation of projects, policymakers face considerable local resistance [e.g. 6], which may increase exponentially as renewables are deployed on a larger scale. This is problematic for a country such as Switzerland, which is lagging in terms of production of solar and wind energy and needs to increase its share of renewables significantly to meet the objective of reducing CO2 emissions to zero by 2050 [7]
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