Assessing the social acceptance of key technologies for the German energy transition

Background The widespread use of sustainable energy technologies is a key element in the transformation of the energy system from fossil-based to zero-carbon. In line with this, technology acceptance is of great importance as resistance from the public can slow down or hinder the construction of energy technology projects. The current study assesses the social acceptance of three energy technologies relevant for the German energy transition: stationary battery storage, biofuel production plants and hydrogen fuel station. Methods An online survey was conducted to examine the public’s general and local acceptance of energy technologies. Explored factors included general and local acceptance, public concerns, trust in relevant stakeholders and attitudes towards financial support. Results The results indicate that general acceptance for all technologies is slightly higher than local acceptance. In addition, we discuss which public concerns exist with regard to the respective technologies and how they are more strongly associated with local than general acceptance. Further, we show that trust in stakeholders and attitudes towards financial support is relatively high across the technologies discussed. Conclusions Taken together, the study provides evidence for the existence of a “general–local” gap, despite measuring general and local acceptance at the same level of specificity using a public sample. In addition, the collected data can provide stakeholders with an overview of worries that might need to be addressed when planning to implement a certain energy project.

Do Community Engagement And Fairness Matter In Local Acceptance Of Wind Turbines In Tunisia?

Environmental concern is considered as a significant interest for companies, government and communities. These stakeholders are conscious about the energy situation but this consciousness is not always reflected in actions of acceptance. Accordingly, this research paper sheds light on the impact of the main key factors influencing the community acceptance of wind energy projects in Tunisia. An extensive literature review about community acceptance, community engagement, fairness and perceived risks is presented. Based on previous studies, authors identify the relationships between these variables. A quantitative approach is used to test the hypotheses using responses from a sample of 265 survey respondents in Tunisia. The research results and implications are discussed. Recommendations to be considered by interest stakeholders are drawn.

Knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) on fecal sludge resource recovery and reuse in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Resource recovery and reuse (RRR) of fecal sludge (FS) from onsite sanitation systems describes the concept of turning human waste into valuable end products. However, studies on peoples' perceptions of FS-derived products are still limited. Guided by the knowledge, attitudes and practices framework, and data from a survey of 395 households, focus group discussions and key informant interviews, this article explores how residents in three unplanned settlements of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania view FS RRR (FS-RRR). Results indicate that residents' knowledge about FS-RRR is moderately low. Moreover, residents generally have negative attitudes toward using FS-derived products, except for those not directly consumed, such as biogas or FS-briquettes. Additionally, only a few residents have engaged in any FS-RRR practices. We conclude that to increase local acceptance of FS-RRR will require significant efforts by a multitude of actors, not least to dispel myths linked to human waste, but also to raise awareness and demonstrate the benefits and safety of FS-derived products. The Tanzanian government must take the lead in this process and should start by prioritizing the improvement of FSM to enable such a shift.

Artificial intelligent based fuzzy game analysis of migrant students’ studying based on performance and fairness

Artificial Intelligence based Fuzzy Importance Performance Analysis Model (AFIPA)With the transformation of economic system, migrant workers transfer employment from underdeveloped areas to economically developed areas, and children’s reading has become one of the important things for migrant workers and families. With the increase of children in the immigration area year by year, the pressure on education in the immigration area has gradually increased, which has become one of the social problems to be solved by the government in the immigration area. The speed of school construction cannot keep up with the growth of children, and because it takes up a lot of resources, funds and manpower, the government is not very enthusiasticin the immigration area. The stakeholders involved are always playing a game. How to achieve the best state is a difficult problem. After the central government’s policywereissuedabout solving the enrollment problem of migrant workers’children in school, local acceptance criteria for admitting migrant children to school were formulated. However, when lowering the admission threshold, all localities always look to other areas for fear of falling too low to become a basin of confluence, which cause an unbearable burden. In this paper fuzzy based analytic theory has been analysed Through the game analysis of various stakeholders, and taking Shengze Town, Jiangsu Province as an example, this paper puts forward some fuzzy policy suggestions, hoping to provide some new experience in promoting migrant children’s education in the future.

Acceptance Issues in the Transition to Renewable Energy: How Law Supposedly can Manage Local Opposition

Renewable energy projects are increasingly confronted by persistent resistance from local communities, which delays and sometimes even prevents their implementation. This reflects the frequent gap between support for the general idea of renewables as a strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and acceptance of renewable energy installations in the local landscape. For more than a decade, the Danish Renewable Energy Act has applied various financial measures to promote local acceptance. A general characteristic of the measures is their compensatory purpose, which presupposes that renewable energy facilities have negative impacts. The current toolbox includes instruments aimed at compensating individual house owners for specific financial losses, as well as measures that in more general terms, and ex post, compensate for non-financial impacts. Nevertheless, the toolbox is not yet fully developed and there is a need for further understanding of how different measures work, also in relation to more recently introduced renewables within the local acceptance framework of the Renewable Energy Act, such as solar power. Suggestions are made for the development of more dynamic and flexible regulatory approaches that would include individualized measures tailored to meet the distinct needs of local communities or individual landowners.

Homecoming without Nostalgia: Local Communities and the Reintroduction of the Wild Forest Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus sennicus) in Finland

Wildlife translocations often raise concerns about the purpose and impact among people living in target locations. We applied the integrated impact assessment in planning the reintroduction of wild forest reindeer in Finland. We investigated the variety of expected socioecological impacts, the relative importance of these impacts and local willingness to participate in local-level reintroduction activities. The reintroduction project organised interactive forums in 2013 and 2016 in each of the four regions suitable for wild forest reindeer. The variety of recognised potential impacts was high, but the relative importance given to the expected impacts varied relatively little from forum to forum. Importantly, we found a contextual and relational value of wild forest reindeer that extended beyond their intrinsic and instrumental value. The results indicate high local acceptance of reintroduction and willingness to participate in it.

Trends in Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy Across Europe—A Literature Review

Social acceptance has proven to be a significant barrier in the implementation of renewable energy systems (hereinafter “RES”). While a general acceptance of RES is high, low local acceptance has hindered the development of renewable energy projects (hereinafter “REP”). This study assesses the determinants of local and general social acceptance of REP across Europe through a qualitative analysis from 25 case studies of the most significant social drivers and barriers that include all European countries. These case studies contain qualitative and quantitative analyses of the main factors for social acceptance of many representative groups including residents, stakeholders, and experts. Understanding the influences of social acceptance enables us to create strategies that will promote the development of REP by mitigating any public opposition.

Measurement Development for Tourism Destination Business Environment and Competitive Advantages

This study attempts to develop a measurement model of competitiveness utilized in the tourism sector, which appears to be fundamentally different in nature from traditional goods and services. Tourism destination competitiveness reflecting the generic characteristics should be considered diversified to notice the distinctive perspective between the business environment and competitive advantages. Criticism of some prior conventional literature stems from the lack of a rigorous process to find the structure and attributes of the measurement items for a destination’s business environment and competitive advantages. The available theoretical framework and measures containing the destination business environment and competitive advantages warrant further investigation. The vital dimensions of the destination business environment (i.e., dynamism, hostility, turbulence, investment, information technology, and governance) and destination competitive advantages (i.e., defensiveness, local acceptance, accessibility, reasonability, uniqueness, supportiveness, and image sustainability) were successfully identified through quantitative and empirical analysis, which could provide a significant basis for managerial and policy decisions in the tourism industry.

Integrating Methods and Empirical Findings from Social and Behavioural Sciences into Energy System Models—Motivation and Possible Approaches

The transformation of the energy system is a highly complex process involving many dimensions. Energy system models help to understand the process and to define either target systems or policy measures. Insights derived from the social sciences are not sufficiently represented in energy system models, but address crucial aspects of the transformation process. It is, therefore, necessary to develop approaches to integrate results from social science studies into energy system models. Hence, as a result of an interdisciplinary discourse among energy system modellers, social scientists, psychologists, economists and political scientists, this article explains which aspects should be considered in the models, how the respective results can be collected and which aspects of integration into energy system models are conceivable to provide an overview for other modellers. As a result of the discourse, five facets are examined: Investment behaviour (market acceptance), user behaviour, local acceptance, technology innovation and socio-political acceptance. Finally, an approach is presented that introduces a compound of energy system models (with a focus on the macro and micro-perspective) as well as submodels on technology genesis and socio-political acceptance, which serves to gain a more fundamental knowledge of the transformation process.