A questionnaire survey from DTU documenting general public acceptance of green technologies shows wide popular support for solar cells on industrial buildings. In the survey, 93% of Danes say that they are in favour of more solar cells on industrial roofs. The same trend is shown in the support for offshore wind farms, which receive positive responses from a total of 87% of the respondents in the survey.
“The results show that popular support for solar cells means that there is great potential for using this technology on industrial roofs. The Danes think this is a fantastic idea, and society should act on this and examine whether there is a need to provide the owners of industrial buildings with greater incentives to install solar cells, remove any regulatory barriers, and make it possible for energy companies to handle the installations and operation of solar cells on industrial roofs,” says Professor Jacob Ladenburg from DTU Management.
The questionnaire survey from DTU is based on responses from 1,589 respondents and maps their attitude to green technologies such as district heating, energy savings, wind turbines, solar cells, carbon capture and storage, and nuclear power. A common feature of the responses is that the further away the technologies are located from the respondents’ place of residence, the greater the acceptance of them.
“We know from several construction projects that popular acceptance is important for a smooth introduction of new green technologies. And if there is resistance to the geographical location of the technologies, we’ve seen that it has caused significant delays, large financial costs, or even cancellation of several projects with onshore wind turbines, hydropower, and solar cells,” says Jacob Ladenburg.
Positive reception of carbon capture at sea
The study shows that, in addition to solar cells on industrial roofs, district heating, energy-saving technologies, and offshore wind farms are the most widely accepted technologies, and that they are positively received by 93, 91, 91, and 87%, respectively. In addition, carbon capture and storage offshore is supported by 54%, despite this being a completely new technology of which Danish citizens have little knowledge. The least popular technologies in the survey concern carbon capture and storage in urban, rural, and coastal areas, which are only supported by 25, 32, and 35% of the respondents, respectively. Nuclear power was the fourth least accepted technology with 40% support.
Finally, the survey shows that there are significant differences in acceptance of the technology across age groups. Younger respondents are more positive about nuclear power, while older respondents are more positive towards district heating.
The survey has been funded with funds from ‘Bifrost’—an EUDP-funded carbon transportation and permanent storage project in which the partners in TotalEnergies, Ørsted, Nordsøfonden, BlueNord, and DTU are studying the potential for offshore carbon transportation and storage.
