social acceptance of biomass utilization · 2 agenda iii outlook: assessing social acceptance in...

Project Meeting “SeMoBioEnergy”

KIT – The Research University in the Helmholtz Association www.kit.edu

Social acceptance of biomass utilizationKira SchumacherMarch 9th 2017, Concepción

2

Agenda

III Outlook: Assessing social acceptance in Chile

II Case study: Lessons learned from Europe

I Why acceptance matters

Kira Schumacher, Social acceptance of biomass use

IV Discussion and questions

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Agenda






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§ NOT: What IS technically feasible/ correct/ legitimate… .§ BUT: What is PERCEIVED to be legitimate/ sound/ fair… .- What BELIVES does the population have about bioenergy use?- What influences their PERCEPTIONS about bioenergy?- What influences their DISPOSITION TO ACT in favor/ against a bioenergy project?

Thomas Theorem:

“If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences“

Source: Thomas & Thomas

Social acceptance research requires to change perspectives

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Why social acceptance of bioenergy projects (in Chile) matters

“Food for fuel” debate

http://gas2.org/2011/10/17/americans-now-use-more-corn-for-fuel-than-food/

Resistance against large renewable energy projects


http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Reclaiming-Water-Chilean-Fight-Against-US-Dam-Project-Heats-Up-20170129-0028.html

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“Food for fuel” debate

http://gas2.org/2011/10/17/americans-now-use-more-corn-for-fuel-than-food/

Resistance against large renewable energy projects


http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Reclaiming-Water-Chilean-Fight-Against-US-Dam-Project-Heats-Up-20170129-0028.html

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Socio-political acceptance- Lacking trust of the population in political

decisions- Lacking contact points for information and

consultation (e.g. energy agencies)- …..

Local acceptance - Bad smell, local traffic due to biomass

transportation- Procedural and distributive justice- …..

Market acceptance- Strong competition for substrates

between market participants- Missing heat utilization concepts- …..

Social acceptance has different dimensions, which might all bear acceptance problems

Source: adapted from Wüstenhagen et al. (2013)

Acceptanceof bioenergy

plants


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Study region§ Trinational Upper

Rhine Region (URR)§ Alsace, Northwest

Switzerland,Southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden

§ Geographically coherent§ Strong political support

of the biogas sector

Survey design§ Target group:

Households located in one kilometer radius around a rural biogas plant

§ Standardized questionnaire

Sample points§ 11 biogas plants with

similar local conditions§ Selection criteria:1. technology (biogas)2. year of installation3. plant size

Sample description§ Response rate: 20,5%, N = 670§ Selection criteria:1. Awareness of the local plant prior to the

survey à 24.4 % (N=163)2. Living at current address before the plant

was built à 8.8 % (N=59) 3. No business relationship to the plant

operator à 4.8 % (N=32) § Final sample N = 433 (64.9 %), fairly

representative for population in km distance

Comparative cross-national survey

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ResultsCountry Effects on the Level of Local Acceptance

Source: Schweizer-Ries, 2008

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ResultsCountry Effects on the Level of Local Acceptance

§ Strong differences between the national sub-samples with regard to both

- level of acceptance- willingness to act

§ One-way ANOVAconfirmed statistical significant differences between national sub-samples with regard to the level of local acceptance: F(2, 405) = 26.47, p = .00, h² = .12

Main findings

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ResultsFactors Influencing Local Acceptance

§ Highly significant effects of Ø ‘perceived benefitsØ ‘trust in plant operator’Ø ‘advocacy of renewable

energies’Ø ‘perceived odor

emissions’ § Significant effects of

country dummy variablesà confirming differences between the level of acceptance of the sub-regions

§ The regression model explained 63.7 % of variance in “self-reported acceptance” of the local biogas plant.

Multiple linear regression of local acceptance (N = 369)

Main findings

controlvariables

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Information

Consultation

Cooperation

Assumption of responsibility

1 2 3 4 5

France actual France desiredGermany actual Germany desiredSwitzerland actual Switzerland desired

ResultsActual versus Desired Participation

§ Wish to participate surpasses the actual possibilities

§ Desired participation decreases with increasing assumption of responsibility

§ Swiss respondents are more often aware of participation possibilities than German and French respondents.

§ The gap between actual and desired participation is largest in France.

§ One-way ANOVA confirmed significant differences on all levels of involvement between the sub-samples with the exception of ‘desired information’

Main findings

entirely correct

entirely incorrect

Leve

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nvol

vem

ent

Source: adapted from on Rau et al., 2012

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Main findings

§ 19% in Germany, 30% in Switzerland, 33% in France accept a biogas plant in their vicinity (<1km distance)

§ A distance of 3.1 km or more is perceived to be long enough by the large majority of local residents (90% in Germany, 93% in Switzerland and 96% in France)

§ German respondents desire the longest distance, French and Swiss respondents have similar preferences. (One-way ANOVA: F(2, 418) = 5.85, p = .003, h² = .03 and Games-Howell test).

ResultsDefine your Backyard

Minimal distance for acceptance of biogas plants

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

< 1 km 1 - 3 km 3.1 - 8 km 8.1 - 11 km > 11 km

Cum

ulat

ive

freq

uenc

y (%

)

What should be the minimum distance of a biogas plant to your home for you to accept the plant?

Switzerland

Germany

France

(N Germany = 195, N France = 96, N Switzerland = 125)

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Outlook: Social acceptance study of bioenergy projects in Chile

v Online survey (18+), v Sample size: N = 1.200 v Representative for Chile with regard to age, gender, region, social class

Data collection

v General attitudes towards the environmentv Acceptance of bioenergy, in particular wood combustion and biogasv Acceptance of pellet heating systems/ decentralized heating systems v Role of information and participation

Key topics of the survey


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Environmental impacts Renewable energiesGeneral public

§ Air pollution through combustion of wood by households

§ Overuse and uncontrolled exploitation of the natural forest (illegal wood supply)

§ Strong opposition by the population and environmental associations to large renewable energy plants

§ Wood utilization/ deforestation is perceived as unsustainable

§ Smaller plants might enjoy higher social acceptance (lower impact on the environment and human heath)

Hypotheses from the actor analysis

Local economy Wood combustionLocal communities

§ Health problems (air pollution)§ Traffic, destruction of roads,

and noise because of biomass transport

§ Landscape changes due to wood plantations

§ Wood combustion by households as cheapestenergy source

§ Increasing (but marginal) demand for cleaner and more convenient technologies for heating (e.g., district heating)

§ Employment effects (unskilled workers in the forest sector)

§ Negative impacts on tourism§ Limited creation of local

benefits

III Outlook: Key issues for social acceptance in Chile (preliminary results)

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• Develop questionnaire

• Pretest questionnaire in Chile

• Data collection with the help of “Netquest”

• Data analysis

until June 2017

until July 2017

until Oct.2017

until Dec. 2017

• Include information in project scenarios

• Publish report/ paper

III Social acceptance surveyTimeline and next steps

Stakeholder feedback required

Stakeholder feedback required

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Agenda






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Thank you for your kind attention.

?Kira Schumacher, Social acceptance of biomass use

Open questionsv Are there other topics regarding social

acceptance of biomass use in Chile we missed so far?

v We are happy for your input.à Please contact me:

Kira SchumacherKarlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) Institute for Industrial Production (IIP)Phone: + 49 721 608 44572Email: [email protected]

…and discussion

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References

Rau I., Schweizer-Ries P., Hildebrand J. (2012): Participation: The Silver Bullet for the Acceptance of Renewable Energies? In: Vulnerability, Risks, and Complexity: Impacts of Global Change on Human Habitats, Hogrefe Publishing.

Schweizer-Ries P. (2008): Energy sustainable communities: Environmental psychologicalinvestigations. In : Energy Policy 36, pp. 4126–4135.

Wüstenhagen R., Wolsink M., Bürer M.J. (2007): Social acceptance of renewable energy innovation: An introduction to the concept. In: Energy Policy 35 (5), pp. 2683–2691.

Kira Schumacher, Social acceptance of bioenergy

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III Outlook: Assessing social acceptance within the project SeMoBioEnergy

Research QuestionsStudy Status

Stakeholder analysis of bioenergy value chains

§ Which biomass value chains exist?

§ Which actors are involved? What are their motivations, strategies, and fields of action?

§ How do the actors relate to each other?

ü First 10 explorative interviews

ü Transcription of verbal records

ü Preliminary analysis of results

Semi-structured expert interviews with “informants” of the bioenergy value chain

Methods

Social acceptance study of bio-energy use concepts within the Chilean population

ü Suitable panel provider chosen

ü Conceptual ideas on study design

§ To which extent is biomass use/ bioenergy accepted by the population?

§ What are the significant drivers for acceptance of biomass use/ bioenergy by the population?

Standardized online survey, representative with regard to age, sex, region and social status (N = 1.20)

Hypotheses

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Key topics of the questionnaire:§ General attitudes towards the environment§ Acceptance of bioenergy, in particular wood

combustion§ Acceptance of pellet heating systems§ Acceptance of decentralized heating

systems (e.g. biomass boiler & district heating)

§ Role of information and participation (compare actual information and participation with desired information and participation)

Socio-demographic information:• Age, sex, education, social status etc.

III Outlook: Key topics (preliminary)

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Decentralized energy solutions provide opportunities for the rural population due to potential benefits such as reduction of the dependency on energy imports, local value creation, andinfrastructure improvements.

Rural development though decentralization

For the mid to long term success of bioenergy concepts, stakeholder management and social acceptance play an important role to ensure legitimacy and sound governance.

Social acceptance is key!

Experiences have shown that local opposition is a major obstacle to promote bioenergy.

Local opposition as one major obstacle


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ResultsImpact of Plant Parameters on Local acceptance

Preferred Feedstocks for Biogas Plants (N Germany= 495, N Switzerland = 493, N France= 501)

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Residues from

livestock farming

Biogenic waste from households

and communities

Biogenic waste from the industry

Green waste Energy crops

Sewage sludge

Other

Germany

Switzerland

France

T-test of the Effects of Feedstock, Local Heating Networks, and Conversion Technology

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ResultsFactors Influencing Local Acceptance

Construct Concept # of items Cronbach’s αAdvocacy of renewable energies

Support of renewable energy technologies in general and in the neighborhood

2 0.660

Perceived benefits of biogas plants

Perceived benefits of biogas plants for the society and the individual

4 0.893

Perceived costs of biogas plants

Perceived costs of biogas plants for the society and the individual

3 0.710

Perceived odor emissions Frequency, intensity, and quality of the perceived odor emissions from the local plant

3 0.838

Trust in plant operator Trust in the plant operator with regard to perceived competencies, reliability, and intuitive appraisal

3 0.890

Actual information and participation

Perceived information and participation possibilities during the planning and construction phase of the local biogas plant

5 0.902

Hypothetical Factors and Measurement Scales

social acceptance of biomass utilization · 2 agenda iii outlook: assessing social acceptance in...

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