Photovoltaic (PV) energy sources are considered potential sources of renewable energy for combating climate change. However, consumer acceptance of PV-based energy storage systems must be studied ...comprehensively and psychologically beyond mere awareness and affordability. This study explores consumer acceptance of PV energy storage systems, along with an added relational value context that demonstrates the conducive human-nature relationship among energy consumers. An online survey of 370 respondents was used to examine consumers’ willingness to prefer PV energy storage systems over non-renewable grid-connected energy storage systems. Results of the study were analyzed using a comprehensive structural equation model to estimate and test hypotheses. The findings indicate the favorable influence of several elements on PV energy system social acceptability, including PV energy system awareness, PV energy system beliefs, environmental knowledge, self-effective perception, and relational values. Conversely, the cost of PV energy systems has a negative effect. This study suggests that relational values may offset the negative impacts of energy costs. The inherent link between relational values and the prioritization of sustainable energy storage options serves as a source of information for energy policymakers and stakeholders to regulate energy consumption by influencing consumers to express their love for nature.
•Analyzing consumers' preference for PV energy storage systems over grid-connected storage systems.•Exploring the challenges of social acceptance of PV energy storage systems in a developing country.•Considering the significance of relational values in the social acceptance of PV energy storage systems.•Finding the integrated impact of theory of planned behavior and relational values into energy transition.
Solar and wind energy are expected to play a key role in creating a climate-neutral Europe by 2050 and decarbonizing energy production in general, albeit requiring significant deployment. This ...presupposes that the population accepts such energy sources, thus necessitates understanding how people perceive energy systems. Unlike the abundant literature about wind energy, social acceptance of solar energy has received less attention, especially concerning large solar installations. Opinion polls indicate that solar energy enjoys a high level of socio-political acceptance and is preferred to other renewables, although it is unclear whether this acceptance persists as the technology is deployed on a large scale. This paper helps close this gap by describing the results of a representative survey (n = 601) conducted using a between-subject design to examine how attitudes of the public towards solar energy vary based on the size of installations, how the latter compare to attitudes towards wind energy, and what the role of affect is in the former. Results reveal that the stronger preference for solar power decreases to a similar level as that for wind energy when comparing installation of similar sizes, highlighting that solar energy installations may not easily be scaled up. The study also shows that affect plays an important role in forming people’s attitudes towards wind and solar, especially concerning large-scale installations. This underlines the need for policymakers and project developers, who aim to deploy renewables on a large scale, to attend to the affective component of decision-making.
•Between-subject design survey with a representative sample (n = 601).•Positive attitudes towards solar energy are mediated by installation size.•Solar parks are less positively perceived than rooftop PV installations.•When comparing installations of similar sizes, solar is not more popular than wind energy.•Large installations evoke stronger emotions, which in turn influence attitudes.
The presented issues concern the analysis of barriers limiting large-scale underground hydrogen storage. Prospects for the rapid development of the hydrogen economy, the role of hydrogen in a ...carbon-neutral economy, and the production, use, and demand for hydrogen today and in the perspective of 2050 are indicated. The decreasing costs of producing ‘green’ hydrogen, rising prices of CO2 emission allowances, and the development of carbon capture and storage technology will have a significant impact on the rapid deployment of underground hydrogen storage (UHS). Underground storage of large quantities of hydrogen from surplus renewable energy production is of interest to government institutions interested in the construction of hydrogen storage sites, geological services, large renewable energy sources electricity producers, and chemical and petrochemical plants. It offers the possibility of long-term, safe storage of this gas at relatively low costs.
The prospect of quick implementation of UHS technology on an industrial scale is associated with the definition and overcoming of numerous barriers and obstacles that stand in its way today. Based on the recent literature, they are discussed in the present article. The following have been identified as significant barriers to the implementation of UHS: geological and reservoir constraints, technical and safety limitations, legal barriers, conflicts of interest, and social acceptance of underground hydrogen storage. The most important obstacles in this regard have been identified.
•Interactions of H2 with rocks and fluids in storage sites must be recognized.•The insufficiently recognized impact of hydrogen properties on storage safety.•The lack of H2 storage regulations may inhibit the development of this technology.•Knowledge of underground H2 storage is essential for public acceptance.
Incorrect organic waste management can lead to several environmental and health threats. The literature shows that municipalities are adopting several strategies to reduce the improper disposal of ...organic waste. In 2019, Florianópolis, Brazil, became the first Brazilian state capital to approve a law on mandatory organic waste separation and composting, the Florianópolis composting law (FCL). Nevertheless, the successful implementation of this new regulation relies on acceptance among urban stakeholders and civil society. The role of social acceptance has not been investigated when dealing with new waste management regulations. To this end, 37 qualitative interviews with local stakeholders were conducted to determine the key factors influencing the acceptance of the FCL by analyzing stakeholders' perceptions of the relevant risks, benefits, hindering and promoting factors. The results show that the law could represent an important first step toward a sustainable municipal solid waste management system; however, several risks may arise in the absence of adequate monitoring systems. These risks are mainly linked to water contamination and health issues due to harmful insect proliferation. Furthermore, even though Florianópolis society seems culturally open, the lack of infrastructure and investments in the city could hinder the effectiveness of the law. Strategies for improving the law's effectiveness should be focused on supporting the existing formal and informal composting initiatives that have become widespread in recent decades. This could lead to a decentralized organic waste management system that empowers local initiatives and reduces the initial costs of implementing new composting systems and increases the separation rates at the household level.
Display omitted
•Stakeholders perceive benefits as well as risks related to the new policy (FCL).•Main perceived risks are: environment contamination and tax increase.•Main perceived benefits are: fertilizer provision and public costs reduction.•Supporting a decentralized waste management model can reduce initial FCL costs.•Well planned infrastructures and investments can support FCL effectiveness.
This review focuses on how culture can complicate and impede attempts at promoting more efficient, more sustainable, and often more affordable forms of mobility as well as energy use in homes and ...buildings. In simpler terms: it illustrates the cultural barriers to a low-carbon, low-energy future across 28 countries. Rather than focus on energy supply, it deals intently with energy end-use, demand, and consumption. In terms of low-carbon transport and mobility, it examines the cultural barriers to aggressive driving, speeding, and eco-driving; automated vehicles; and ridesharing and carpooling. In terms of cooking and building energy use, it examines the cultural barriers to solar home systems, improved cookstoves, and energy efficient heating, cooling, and hot water practices. For each case, the review synthesizes a wide range of studies showing that culture can operate as a salient but often unacknowledged barrier to low-carbon transitions as well as sustainability transitions more generally. The paper concludes with recommendations aimed at catalyzing the effectiveness and efficiency with which policymakers, researchers and practitioners are able to research, develop, demonstrate and deploy culturally appropriate technologies and policies for a low-carbon transition.
Display omitted
•Defines culture as the ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society.•Shows how culture can act as a barrier, impediment, and obstacle to low-carbon transitions across 28 countries.•Reveals cultural barriers to eco-driving, automated vehicles, and ridesharing.•Illustrates cultural barriers to solar home systems, cleaner/improved cookstoves, and efficient buildings.•Suggests the positioning of culture in policies, interventions and future research .
Theories of perceived overqualification have tended to focus on employees’ job-related responses to account for effects on performance. We offer an alternative perspective and theorize that perceived ...overqualification could influence work performance through a relational mechanism. We propose that relational skills, in the form of interpersonal influence of overqualified employees, determine their tendency to experience social acceptance and, thus, engage in positive work-related behaviors. We tested this relational model across two studies using time-lagged, multisource data. In Study 1, the results indicated that for employees high on interpersonal influence, perceived overqualification was positively related to self-reported social acceptance, whereas for employees low on interpersonal influence, the relationship was negative. Social acceptance, in turn, was positively related to in-role job performance, interpersonal altruism, and team member proactivity evaluated by supervisors. In Study 2, we focused on peer-reported social acceptance and found that the indirect relationships between perceived overqualification and supervisor-reported behavioral outcomes via social acceptance were negative when interpersonal influence was low and nonsignificant when interpersonal influence was high. The implications of the general findings are discussed.
The rapid uptake of renewable energy technologies in recent decades has increased the demand of energy researchers, policymakers and energy planners for reliable data on the spatial distribution of ...their costs and potentials. For onshore wind energy this has resulted in an active research field devoted to analysing these resources for regions, countries or globally. A particular thread of this research attempts to go beyond purely technical or spatial restrictions and determine the realistic, feasible or actual potential for wind energy. Motivated by these developments, this paper reviews methods and assumptions for analysing geographical, technical, economic and, finally, feasible onshore wind potentials. We address each of these potentials in turn, including aspects related to land eligibility criteria, energy meteorology, and technical developments of wind turbine characteristics such as power density, specific rotor power and spacing aspects. Economic aspects of potential assessments are central to future deployment and are discussed on a turbine and system level covering levelized costs depending on locations, and the system integration costs which are often overlooked in such analyses. Non-technical approaches include scenicness assessments of the landscape, constraints due to regulation or public opposition, expert and stakeholder workshops, willingness to pay/accept elicitations and socioeconomic cost-benefit studies. For each of these different potential estimations, the state of the art is critically discussed, with an attempt to derive best practice recommendations and highlight avenues for future research.
•Review of over 300 studies on large-scale onshore wind potential assessments.•Analysis of geographic, technical, economic and ‘feasible’ potentials.•Identify weaknesses in methods and best practice examples.•Methods could improve transparency, validation, and sensitivities.•Further interdisciplinary research required on ‘feasible’ potentials.
As green hydrogen plays an increasingly pivotal role in shaping sustainable economies and society, understanding public acceptance of hydrogen becomes imperative for fostering social support towards ...hydrogen energy transitions. This study employs a survey-based structural equation modelling method to analyse public perceptions and acceptance of hydrogen technology, fuel cell vehicles, and refuelling infrastructure based on technology acceptance theory. The results highlight the positive impact of the perceived usefulness of hydrogen energy and refuelling stations on individual acceptance levels. A notable discovery reveals that perceived risk consequences significantly influence individuals’ acceptance of nearby refuelling infrastructure, whereas perceived risk likelihood does not. Moreover, this study establishes psychological connections among diverse dimensions of hydrogen acceptance: technology acceptance is found to correlate positively with acceptance of refuelling infrastructure, indicating a pathway for cultivating public acceptance from cognitive to practical levels. The acceptance of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles exhibits mediating effects on this pathway, signifying mutual benefits for stakeholders in promoting hydrogen mobility and establishing refuelling infrastructure.
Display omitted
•Latest trends in multidimensional hydrogen acceptance in Japan.•Increased perceived usefulness enhances technology and infrastructure acceptance.•Perceived risk consequences diminish acceptance of hydrogen infrastructure.•Fuel cell vehicle adoption mediates technology and infrastructure acceptance.•Pathways for cultivating public acceptance from cognitive to practical levels.
Community benefits are a key strategy for promoting social acceptance of renewable energy and ensuring distributive fairness of the energy transition. However, they can sometimes damage rather than ...strengthen the relationship between communities and developers. This paper examines stakeholder submissions to The Scottish Government's Good Practice Principles on Community Benefits from Onshore Renewable Energy Developments (2019) consultation. Communities perceive community benefits as compensation and express concerns about their voluntary nature, while developers see them as benevolent gifts, worrying about their impact on project viability. As the guidelines are voluntary, community benefit arrangements rely on collaboration between developers and communities, but power imbalance and a lack of shared understanding can impede this collaboration. Inspired by governmentality literature, this study analyses stakeholder discourses to understand how issues are framed, solutions proposed, and rationalities guiding these discussions. Qualitative system dynamics modelling is used to provide a comprehensive view of challenges in the design of community benefit arrangements in Scotland, highlighting risks to the developer-community relationship and trust in the energy transition. The analysis suggests that making community benefit arrangements mandatory or rethinking them is essential to preserve this relationship and trust.
•Analysis of community and developer perspectives on community benefits in Scotland.•Community benefits can both improve or damage developer-community relationships.•Analysis using governmentality and qualitative system dynamics modelling.•Communities and developers have conflicting perspectives on community benefits.•Benefits must be made mandatory or re-imagined to ensure a positive relationship.
In this study, we draw upon current knowledge on social curiosity and integrate it with trait activation theory to propose when and how social curiosity trait influences an employee's organizational ...citizenship behavior directed at individual coworkers (OCBI). Specifically, we suggest that overt social curiosity positively affects an employee's OCBI through heightened employee social acceptance whereas covert social curiosity negatively affects OCBI through reduced employee social acceptance within the workgroup. We further contextualize these effects by focusing on the workgroup and suggesting that group task interdependence moderates the relationship between social curiosity trait and employee social acceptance as well as the indirect effect of social curiosity trait on OCBI. Multi-level analyses of time-lagged multi-source data from 567 employees and 116 supervisors nested in 116 workgroups supported our predictions. Our work increases the understanding of how a social curiosity disposition may ultimately build a sense of community at work.
PDF
