Elsevier

Energy Policy

Volume 61, October 2013, Pages 802-810
Energy Policy

Local acceptance of existing biogas plants in Switzerland

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.06.111Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Acceptance of biogas plants by local residents in Switzerland is relatively high.

  • Local acceptance is highly affected by perceived outcomes and citizens’ trust.

  • Smell perception increases perceived costs and reduces perceived benefits and trust.

  • Information offers reduce perceived costs and increase trust and perceived benefits.

  • Participation offers do not have any effect on local acceptance.

Abstract

After the Swiss government's decision to decommission its five nuclear power plants by 2035, energy production from wind, biomass, biogas and photovoltaic is expected to increase significantly. Due to its many aspects of a direct democracy, high levels of public acceptance are necessary if a substantial increase in new renewable energy power plants is to be achieved in Switzerland. A survey of 502 citizens living near 19 biogas plants was conducted as the basis for using structural equation modeling to measure the effects of perceived benefits, perceived costs, trust towards the plant operator, perceived smell, information received and participation options on citizens’ acceptance of “their” biogas plant. Results show that local acceptance towards existing biogas power plants is relatively high in Switzerland. Perceived benefits and costs as well as trust towards the plant operator are highly correlated and have a significant effect on local acceptance. While smell perception and information received had a significant effect on local acceptance as well, no such effect was found for participation options. Reasons for the non-impact of participation options on local acceptance are discussed, and pathways for future research are presented.

Section snippets

Renewable energies in Switzerland

In Switzerland people differentiate between renewable energies and new renewable energies. The former is synonymous with hydropower, which has played an important role in the Swiss energy landscape for a long time. In 2010, hydropower already accounted for 56.5% (approx. 37,500 GW h) of Swiss total electricity production (Bundesamt für Energie BFE, 2010a). The latter stands for renewable energy sources such as wind, biomass, biogas and photovoltaic. New renewable energies have not played a major

Theoretical concepts regarding public acceptance

Research into public acceptance of renewable energy projects (REPs) has been conducted around the world by various disciplines. A prominent focus of these research activities is the NIMBY metaphor (“Not in my backyard”) (e.g. Bell et al., 2005, Van der Horst, 2007, Warren et al., 2005, Wolsink, 2000). NIMBY is understood as an element of rational-choice theory which states that human behavior is motivated mainly by self-interest (Hunter and Leyden, 1995). In the context of REPs, rational choice

Hypothetical model

On bases of the theories described, we have developed a hypothetical structure model which consists of distributive and procedural justice measures as well as their hypothetical effects on the local acceptance of biogas plants (see Fig. 1). The hypothetical model can be tested using structural equation modeling, as we set out to do in this survey. We know of no other study which investigates the influence of these distributive and procedural justice measures on local acceptance of REPs as a

Survey description

In January 2011, a representative survey among residents of biogas plants in operation was conducted in the German-speaking part of Switzerland using a questionnaire distributed by mail. The polled sample consisted of the local residents around 19 of the 72 agricultural biogas plants in Switzerland. All of the selected biogas plants were located in small rural communities and had a focus on electricity production; a few additionally produced heat for local farms. Biogas plants were selected

Generally high local acceptance

The results of this survey show that the acceptance of biogas plants by local residents in Switzerland is relatively high. In the questionnaire the participants rated the biogas plant in their neighborhood as a whole on a scale from 1 (=very negative) to 6 (=very positive). The mean for local acceptance is 4.86 (SD=1.15). This indicates that local acceptance of biogas plants is relatively high in Switzerland, which is a positive outcome. Important to highlight are the significant differences in

Discussion

Local acceptance of biogas plants in Switzerland is highly affected by perceived outcomes (benefits and costs) and by trust towards the operator. These direct factors are highly correlated. Perceived benefits and perceived costs are negatively correlated, which is not a very spectacular result. However, more attention should be paid to the finding that trust in major players is correlated with both other factors, that is to say positively with perceived benefits and negatively with perceived

Limitations of the study

Although the present study has produced considerable new insights concerning the local acceptance of biogas plants in Switzerland, some potential limitations have to be pointed out.

First, it is important to mention that the survey focuses solely on the acceptance of existing biogas plants. Hence, nothing about the resistance against and the acceptance of planned biogas projects can be said; some existing research results prove that the local acceptance of wind power plants increases after the

Conclusion

Both hypothetical models tested in this study were found to fit the data very well. The high percentage of variance explained (83.6%) implies that no relevant factor influencing local acceptance was neglected when formulating the main model. With the exception of the absent effect of participation options, our results are in line with other quantitative research findings (Zoellner et al., 2008). One novel element of this research is the identification and discussion of correlations between

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    This article is based on data which Nora Steimer collected for her master's thesis at the University of Zurich (2011). In order to obtain a copy of the thesis please contact [email protected].

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