Australia’s national science agency CSIRO has released a comprehensive survey of Australians’ attitudes towards the renewable energy transition.
Over 6700 people were surveyed across Australia between August and September 2023, the CSIRO reported.
The survey explored attitudes toward renewable infrastructure in Australia such as solar farms, onshore wind farms, offshore wind farms and the transmission lines needed to get renewable energy to the electricity grid.
According to the results, Australians reported affordability, energy self-reliance and emissions reductions as the top three priorities of the energy transition.
“The value of such a large survey is we can report with a higher degree of certainty what a range of people think,” Senior social scientist Dr Andrea Walton said.
“The survey showed that most Australians supported the energy transition, but opinions varied about the rate and extent of change.
“Many Australians held generally moderate attitudes towards living near renewable energy infrastructure, suggesting a broad willingness to support, or at least tolerate, the development of solar farms, onshore and offshore wind farms, and associated transmission line infrastructure.”
Dr Walton said more research is needed to understand different geographic contexts.
“Transmission lines were seen less favourably compared to other renewable energy infrastructure,” Walton said.
“The survey revealed an important reason for this was that people didn’t always recognise the role of additional transmission lines in the renewable energy transition.
“What this survey indicates is that when people believe that a piece of infrastructure has an important role in the energy transition, they’re much more likely to accept it.”
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