The results of an annual survey on Australian attitudes to renewable energy have been released. According to the survey, support for onshore wind and solar farms has declined compared to last year. Australians reported receiving more negative than positive messages about windfarms. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
Rebecca Huntley, a social trends expert, said anti-wind campaigns promoted by conservative groups had been "extremely effective" in undermining community support. "All that these campaigns need to do is create the perception that other people think [windfarms] are a bad idea," she said.
At the renewable energy industry's annual summit in Sydney, the Clean Energy Council told the industry it had a "fundamental problem" with a lack of trust in regional and rural communities. The council called for a nationwide legislated scheme for local councils to receive money from renewables companies for every megawatt hour of electricity generated by projects over their lifetime.
The survey also showed Australians tend to overestimate the amount of opposition to a clean energy transition. This perception gap was undermining support for a fast transition away from coal and gas. Additionally, people grossly underestimate how much electricity is already being generated from renewables. Well over half (62%) of Australians think renewables supply less than 30% of electricity in the main eastern market, but the actual figure is 46%.
Huntley said Donald Trump's war on Iran and subsequent fuel crisis had been a boon for electric vehicles. However, she said renewable projects were facing an "existential threat" because the companies behind them were failing to properly share benefits with regional and rural towns hosting them.
Jackie Trad, the chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, told the summit: "The fundamental problem this industry has is trust. We do not have enough of it in the places where we build – regional and rural Australia. Our intentions are sincere. Our product is clean. But go looking for the research that says regional communities trust the renewable energy industry, and you will not find it. It does not exist. And in this business, what communities believe determines what gets built."
Trad said the current "patchwork of community benefit funds, grants and negotiated payments" needed to be replaced with a national legislated scheme. "Regional Australia is being asked to host the machinery of our energy security. The least we can do is make sure the towns that host it share squarely in the wealth it creates," she added.