The importance of the renewable energy sector in the opinion of rural and urban youth

Abstract

The growing interest in green energy observed in recent years has become the basis for pilot studies on its electricity production role in Poland. The diagnostic survey method allowed us to learn about young people's opinions on renewable energy sources in the context of four identified research areas (the need for RES, planning its installation, costs, environmental impact). The authors proposed a method based on fuzzy logic (fuzzy relations and optimistic fuzzy aggregation norms) to develop and interpret the survey results to understand the selected community's knowledge about the importance of RES (or not) in the national energy system. The survey shows that although there is no significant difference between respondents in all research areas, rural women are more interested in using green technologies. They have a high self-awareness of their beneficial effects on the environment. Rural respondents, compared to those from the cities, are willing (despite the high cost of equipment) to invest their capital to purchase green energy carriers, which is dictated by their lower knowledge about the forms of external support. Depending on the residence place, respondents selected various government aid programs for renewable energy. People from the city decided mainly on those that would improve the air's comfort and quality in their place of residence. On the other hand, the rural areas' inhabitants focused their attention on the aid possibilities, which would reduce the energy costs of the farms they run in the future. All the respondents agree that investments in clean energy (coming from natural sources) will translate into broadly understood environmental protection, bringing mutual benefits for everyone.