TY - JOUR
T1 - Social acceptance of geothermal technology on a global view
T2 - a systematic review
AU - Renoth, Robin
AU - Buchner, Elmar
AU - Schmieder, Martin
AU - Keim, Maximilian
AU - Plechaty, Manfred
AU - Drews, Michael
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/12
Y1 - 2023/12
N2 - Background: The role of geothermal technology in the context of global efforts toward carbon-free and clean energy production is becoming increasingly important. Social acceptance is a decisive factor in the successful implementation of geothermal projects. Main text: This systematic review summarizes the major aspects and evaluates the crucial outcomes of recent research on community acceptance as a dimension of social acceptance of geothermal technology since 2011, on a global scale. From the literature, we identified and grouped researched acceptance factors into five main acceptance categories, namely ‘project organization and process’, ‘environment’, ‘municipality’, ‘technology’, and ‘governance’. Each category comprises a number of specific acceptance factors addressed by different survey methods (e.g., interviews, questionnaires, content analyses) in the relevant publications. The acceptance factor categories ‘technology’ and ‘governance’ are remarkably underrepresented, whereas the acceptance factors combined in the categories ‘project organization’ and ‘municipality’ are frequently mentioned in the literature. Acceptance factors combined within the category ‘environment’, ‘trust in key actors’, and ‘information about the project’ are expectedly the most dominant ones in the papers studied. Interestingly, acceptance categories and number of mentions of acceptance factors are comparable in all survey methods applied in the various studies. Besides the acceptance factors combined in the categories ‘environment’ and ‘project organization and process’, ‘knowledge about geothermal technology’ (an acceptance factor from the category ‘municipality’) represents the predominant acceptance factor of geothermal technology. Conclusions: Deeper knowledge, in particular about the technical aspects of geothermal energy generation, might enable a more comprehensive and holistic view on geothermal technology. Furthermore, the integration of all relevant groups of stakeholders in the process of implementation of geothermal projects strongly influences their social acceptance. Following the results of our systematic literature review, we propose these aspects should be addressed in more detail in future research on the community acceptance of geothermal technology and energy production.
AB - Background: The role of geothermal technology in the context of global efforts toward carbon-free and clean energy production is becoming increasingly important. Social acceptance is a decisive factor in the successful implementation of geothermal projects. Main text: This systematic review summarizes the major aspects and evaluates the crucial outcomes of recent research on community acceptance as a dimension of social acceptance of geothermal technology since 2011, on a global scale. From the literature, we identified and grouped researched acceptance factors into five main acceptance categories, namely ‘project organization and process’, ‘environment’, ‘municipality’, ‘technology’, and ‘governance’. Each category comprises a number of specific acceptance factors addressed by different survey methods (e.g., interviews, questionnaires, content analyses) in the relevant publications. The acceptance factor categories ‘technology’ and ‘governance’ are remarkably underrepresented, whereas the acceptance factors combined in the categories ‘project organization’ and ‘municipality’ are frequently mentioned in the literature. Acceptance factors combined within the category ‘environment’, ‘trust in key actors’, and ‘information about the project’ are expectedly the most dominant ones in the papers studied. Interestingly, acceptance categories and number of mentions of acceptance factors are comparable in all survey methods applied in the various studies. Besides the acceptance factors combined in the categories ‘environment’ and ‘project organization and process’, ‘knowledge about geothermal technology’ (an acceptance factor from the category ‘municipality’) represents the predominant acceptance factor of geothermal technology. Conclusions: Deeper knowledge, in particular about the technical aspects of geothermal energy generation, might enable a more comprehensive and holistic view on geothermal technology. Furthermore, the integration of all relevant groups of stakeholders in the process of implementation of geothermal projects strongly influences their social acceptance. Following the results of our systematic literature review, we propose these aspects should be addressed in more detail in future research on the community acceptance of geothermal technology and energy production.
KW - Community acceptance
KW - Energy transition
KW - Environmental impact
KW - Geothermal energy
KW - Induced seismicity
KW - Renewable energy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85180132944&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s13705-023-00432-1
DO - 10.1186/s13705-023-00432-1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85180132944
SN - 2192-0567
VL - 13
JO - Energy, Sustainability and Society
JF - Energy, Sustainability and Society
IS - 1
M1 - 49
ER -