Renewable energy: An assessment of public awareness

SYNOPSIS A survey was conducted to assess attitudes of the public towards renewable energy. The information gathered was analysed for respondents attitudes towards issues such as, knowledge of renewable energy sources and power generation, encouragement by government as well as at a personal level, comparison of fossil fuels use and renewable power, opinions for encouragement, leads for encouraging renewable energy growth with financial incentives, global warming problem and renewable energy as an option and public financial contribution towards lowering global warming. It was observed that the public has considerable awareness of the sources of the energy. It confirms from the data that the public understands mostly that renewable energy is the non polluting source and going for utilisation of renewable energy is a very good idea. It was also clear that people knew about wind and atomic energy generation systems. Among the renewable energy sources it was found that public opinion supported wind energy as the best option for generating energy. As for the comparison of the energy generation from the renewable energy with that from fossil fuel public opinion was that renewable energy was much better. Many slightly agreed that government encouragement is necessary for the promotion of renewable energy. It was observed that respondents individually had to take a lead for developing renewable energy use at the household level as well as business development. There was general agreement that there is evidence that global warming is taking place and some action has to be taken to control it. With a view that its application would probably lead to a reduction in global warming, people agree strongly with solar energy use. They would be willing to pay if the energy in their electricity bill comes from renewable energy. Most of the respondents in the area surveyed used solar equipment in some form. The information will be helpful in bringing to market renewable energy equipment. The paper describes public attitudes for planning the use of resources towards reduction of global warming.