Societal acceptance of energy technologies: Create Acceptance
How are new energy technologies evaluated within society and which deciding factor will lead to deployment of these technologies? In January 2006 the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) started a new project for the European Commission called Create Acceptance in which these questions are stipulated. The research aim is to develop a tool to facilitate the process of societal acceptance.
The current understanding of social processes affecting the (non-) acceptance of renewable energy technologies (RES) and rational use of energy (RUE) is limited. Project managers often assume that stakeholders will adopt and adapt to their innovation without resistance. In practice, however, stakeholders such as users, NGO’s or local public authorities might have different -and possibly conflicting- visions about the innovation and the future world in which the innovation should fit in. If these diverging views were to be ignored, project implementation might face severe societal resistance in the implementation phase. There is a need for empirically based analytical research to provide a better understanding of the complex interactions between stakeholders that block or facilitate the adoption of alternative practices and of the institutional contexts favourable to technological innovation.
Large-scale power generation on natural gas and biomass in the Claus power plant in Maasbracht.
At 1 km distance it is still clearly visible.
Source: Wouter van den Hoogen, University of Technology Eindhoven
The Create Acceptance project aims to improve the conditions for societal acceptance of RES and RUE by developing a tool for assessing and promoting the societal acceptance of technologies. The project stems from the Socrobust project, developed under the European Commission Fifth Framework. Socrobust will first be assessed for suitability to contribute to social acceptance of RES and RUE technologies by mapping its potential and limitations.
Secondly, the key elements of social acceptance of RES and RUE technologies will be determined by assessing their recent and past social acceptance. The Socrobust tool platform will be expanded into a multi-stakeholder tool by integrating knowledge gained and by designing the necessary instruments and procedures. Finally, validation and deployment of the multi-stakeholder tool will take place in five selected demonstration projects, covering a wide range of RES and RUE technologies as well as various regions in Europe. The selected demonstration projects are a hydrogen project in the Nordic countries, a biomass project in the East-European region, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) in the West-Europe region, a wind project in Hungary and a solar thermal project in the Mediterranean region.
Power generation in a demonstration: wind turbines supply electricity.
The multi-stakeholder tool will become publicly available to energy managers, policy makers, technology developers, intermediary energy service providers and other possible users after conclusion of the project in 2008. The tool and information about the tool will be made available on the projects website, including a manual. The Create Acceptance project is coordinated by ECN. Partners represent ten institutions and nine European Member States, plus Iceland.
Information:
For more information on the project please visit www.createacceptance.net
Contact:
Ruth Mourik and Rob Raven
ECN Policy Studies
coordinator@remove-this-part-createacceptance.net
