Researching social acceptability of renewable energy technologies in Finland

Abstract

While there are ambitious targets to increase the share of renewable energy technology implementations in the different EU-states, it is increasingly recognized that social acceptance may form a factor constraining the expansion of their implementation and use. In order to investigate the Finnish social acceptance towards renewable energy technology implementations, a multiple choice questionnaire was designed with three groups of questions: background information, awareness of renewable energy technologies (RETs), and willingness to invest in RETs. The answers showed that the long-term economic feasibility of using RETs locally in homes was not obvious to 33% of the fifty interviewees. In general, 62% of the interviewees were willing to pay extra cost to obtain green energy. More than half (52.4%) of the interviewees think that public sector should take the first step towards renewable energy production. Likewise, in the respondents’ view, the public sector should take the initiative for implementing RETs by providing business models and incentives to encourage citizens to implement RETs in their houses.