Consumer Awareness of Renewable Energy Sources: The Case of Poland

Abstract

The growing demand for energy is accelerating the process of consuming non-renewable energy sources, so special attention should be paid to the development of renewable energy as the energy obtained from renewable energy sources (RES) will reduce the consumption of primary raw materials and reduce emissions of harmful substances entering the atmosphere. The aim of this article is thus to investigate the attitude of Polish consumers towards renewable energy sources and to discover the relationship between the level of awareness and other factors such as age and education. The results of the research revealed that there was a correlation between the age and level of education of the respondents and their willingness to consider the issues related to renewable energy sources and implement solutions in their households that take into account the consumption of natural energy sources (p-value of the significance test for age is 0.0001227, and p-values of independence test for the level of education are 0.00013). The discovery of such correlations will allow knowing in which direction the efforts should be intensified in order to reach the largest part of society.