Acceptance Of Renewable Energy Technologies Research Articles

The Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy: An Approach Based Customer Orientation

Social acceptance is considered as a very important phenomenon in the development and implementation of renewable energy technologies and the achievement of energy policy objectives. It is generally argued that public attitudes need to be changed in order to enable the implementation of feasible renewable energy technologies. The aim of this research is to explore the determinants of social acceptance of renewable energy technologies while focusing on consumer orientation. This research paper concludes with the need for more systematic research on the social acceptance driven by consistent theoretical frameworks drawn from psychology and other social science disciplines, explicit concept definitions, and a focusing emphasis on symbolic and emotional aspects. A qualitative study based on a semantic analysis and a deductive approach is used to study the determinants of the phenomenon in question.

Factors influencing the public intention to use renewable energy technologies in South Korea: Effects of the Fukushima nuclear accident

The Fukushima accident has influenced public attitudes toward energy sources and technologies, including not only nuclear energy, but also other energy sources. Therefore, it is worth investigating how the accident influenced public perceptions of renewable energy and its technologies, between the time before the accident and after the accident. This study aims to explore the effects of the Fukushima accident on the public perceptions of renewable energy technologies in South Korea, the closest nation to Japan. This study found that there were notable differences of public perceptions, including public attitudes, perceived benefits, trust, intention to use, knowledge and risks between before and after the earthquake. In addition, the perceived cost of renewable energy technologies was the primary determinant of the intention to use the technologies before the accident, whereas public attitudes toward the technologies became the main antecedents of the intention after the accident. After the accident, we found that there is a multi-dimensional matrix of perceived trust-benefits (with risks)-attitude-intention to use, in explaining the public acceptance of renewable energy technologies. Moreover, we found significant roles of the perceived trust, benefits and risks in the research model. Based on the empirical findings, both implications and suggestions are presented.

Explaining public preferences for high voltage pylon designs: An empirical study of perceived fit in a rural landscape

In many countries, electricity transmission networks are being upgraded and developed arising from policies aiming to decarbonise energy systems. However, new power lines are often controversial, due to their perceived negative impacts on rural landscapes. Despite the fact that visual impacts are an important element of public objections, to date, little research has analysed public preferences for alternative pylon designs, as well as investigating the social and psychological factors that might explain such preferences. This paper sought to address this gap, informed by research on public acceptance of renewable energy technologies, using a survey conducted with a representative sample of UK adults (n=1519). The findings indicate that the ‘T-pylon’ design, winner of a recent competition, was most strongly preferred and the one most perceived to fit with a rural landscape, by comparison to the conventional ‘A frame’ design and a ‘Totem’ design shortlisted in the competition. Linear regression analyses indicated three factors that explained perceived fit, regardless of the designs: lower levels of educational attainment, positive general attitudes towards transmission lines and higher levels of trust in National Grid were associated with positive perceptions of fit of the pylons in a rural landscape. Finally, findings concerning public support for diverse mitigation measures indicated that the use of alternative designs was less supported than burying new powerlines underground and routing pylons away from homes and schools. The implications of these results for more sustainable grid networks are discussed.

Mesoscopic Solar Cells for Electricity and Hydrogen Production from Sunlight

Abstract The quality of human life depends to a large degree on the availability of energy sources. The present annual worldwide energy consumption has already attained a level of over 400 exajoules and is expected to further augment steeply from the increase in world population and the rising demand of energy in the developing countries. This implies enhanced depletion of fossil fuel reserves leading to further aggravation of the environmental pollution. Quality of life on earth is threatened unless renewable energy resources can be developed in the near future. Chemistry is expected to make important contributions to identify environmentally friendly solutions of the energy problem. One attractive strategy discussed in this article is the development of systems that mimic natural photosynthesis in the conversion solar energy. The task to be accomplished by these systems is to harvest sunlight and convert it to electricity or drive an uphill chemical reaction. Learning from the concepts used by green plants, we have developed a molecular photovoltaic device whose overall efficiency for solar energy conversion to electricity has already attained 11%. The system is based on the sensitization of nanocrystalline oxide films by charge-transfer sensitizers. The underlying fundamental processes of light trapping by the sensitizer, heterogeneous electron transfer from the electronically excited chromophore into the conduction band of the semiconductor oxide and the percolative migration of the injected electrons through the mesoporous film to the collector electrode, will be described below in detail. The low cost and ease of production of the new cell should benefit large scale applications. These systems will undoubtedly promote the acceptance of renewable energy technologies, not least by setting new standards of convenience and economy. The nanocrystalline semiconductor junctions developed first for dye sensitized solar cells have meanwhile found a realm of other applications ranging from electrochromic and electroluminescent displays to high power lithium insertion batteries. They are also used in tandem cells for the cleavage of water into hydrogen and oxygen by sunlight.

Low cost and efficient photovoltaic conversion by nanocrystalline solar cells

The quality of human life depends to a large degree on the availability of energy sources. The present worldwide energy consumption already exceeds the level of 6000 gigawatt and is expected to further increase sharply. This implies enhanced depletion of fossil fuel reserves, leading to further aggravation of the environmental pollution. Adding to this the dangers arising from the accumulation of plutonium fission products from nuclear reactors, the quality of life on earth is threatened unless renewable energy resources can be quickly developed. Photovoltaic solar energy converters are expected to make important contributions to the identification of environmentally friendly solutions to the energy problem. One attractive strategy discussed in this paper is the development of systems that mimic natural photosynthesis in the conversion of solar energy for the fixation of carbon dioxide. We have developed a molecular photovoltaic device whose overall efficiency for solar energy conversion to electricity has already attained 10%. The system is based on the sensitization of nanocrystalline films by transition metal charge transfer sensitizers. In analogy to photosynthesis, the new chemical solar cell achieves the separation of the light absorption and charge carrier transport processes. Extraordinary yields exceeding 90% for the conversion of incident photons into electric current are obtained, in contrast to conventional photovoltaic cells which are not economical for base load utility electricity production. The low cost and ease of production of the new cell should benefit large-scale applications, in particular in underdeveloped or developing countries, which benefit from generous sunshine. Aside from its intrinsic merits as a photovoltaic device, nanocrystalline film development opens up a large number of additional avenues for energy storage ranging from intercalation batteries to the formation of chemical fuels. These systems will undoubtedly promote the acceptance of renewable energy technologies, not least by setting new standards of convenience and economy.

Nanocrystalline solar cells

The quality of human life depends to a large degree on the availability of energy sources. The present worldwide energy consumption exceeds already the level of 6000 Gigawatt. It is expected to further increase sharply from the rising demand of energy in the developing countries. This implies enhanced depletion of fossil fuel reserves. leading to further aggravation of the environmental pollution exerting adverse effects on the well being of man kind. Adding the dangers arising from the accumulation of plutonium fission products from nuclear reactors, the quality of life on earth is threatened unless renewable energy resources can be developed in the near future. Photovoltaics is expected to make important contributions to identify environmentally friendly solutions of the energy problem. One attractive strategy discussed in this lecture is the development of systems that mimic natural photosynthesis in the conversion solar energy for the fixation of carbon dioxide. The task to be accomplished by these systems is to harvest sun light to produce electricity or drive an uphill chemical reaction, such as the cleavage of water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can be subsequently employed to reduce carbon dioxide to produce fuels and chemical feed stocks. Learning from the concepts used by green plants we have developed a molecular photovoltaic device whose overall efficiency for solar energy conversion to electricity has already attained 10%.. The system is based on the sensitization of nanocrystalline films by transition metal charge transfer sensitizers. In analogy to photosynthesis, the new chemical solar cell achieves the separation of light absorption and charge carrier transport. Extraordinary yields for the conversion of incident photons into electric current are obtained, exceeding 90% for transition metal complexes within the wavelength range of their absorption band. Conventional photovoltaic cells for solar energy conversion into electricity are solid state devices do not economically compete for base load utility electricity production. The low cost and ease of production of the new nanocrystalline cell should be benefit large scale applications in particular in underdeveloped or developing countries. These regions of the earth benefit from generous sun shine rendering the availability of a cheap solar cell technology important in view of improving the quality of life and preserving natural resources. Quite aside from its intrinsic merits as a photovoltaic device, the nanocrystalline films development opens up a whole number of additional avenues for energy storage ranging from intercalation batteries to the formation of chemical fuels. These nanocrystalline systems will undoubtedly promote the acceptance of renewable energy technologies, not least by setting new standards of convenience and economy.