- Email: [email protected]
Barriers to social acceptance of renewable energy systems in Colombia
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect Barriers to social acceptance of renewable energy systems in Colombia Ana Marı´a Rosso-Cero´n and Viatcheslav Kafarov This work presents the results of a survey conducted to several stakeholders involved with renewable energy systems (RES) in Colombia. It focuses on identifying and analysing three social dimensions (socio-political acceptance, market acceptance, and community acceptance) that affect the penetration of solar, wind, biomass, mini and micro hydraulic, geothermal, tidal, and wave energy systems in the market. The analysis of the survey outcomes shows that a significant percentage of interviewees notice that the development of RES in Colombia has a lot of barriers. Therefore, this contrasts sharply with the existing local capacity and renewable resources. Barriers related to market acceptance dimension would be the most important issue for implementing RES, followed by socio-political acceptance and community acceptance, respectively. Address Department of Chemical Engineering, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Bucaramanga, Colombia Corresponding author: Kafarov, Viatcheslav ([email protected])
Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2015, 10:103–110 This review comes from a themed issue on Process systems engineering Edited by Mahmoud El-Halwagi and Ka Ming Ng For a complete overview see the Issue and the Editorial Available online 18th November 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.coche.2015.08.003 2211-3398/# 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Introduction Nowadays, energy dependence on fossil fuels (in terms of primary energy consumption representing an average of 35% oil, 27% coal, 23% natural gas, and the rest from alternative energies) triggers significant concerns as they are not renewable energy sources [1]. Furthermore, fossil fuels cause serious environmental impacts such as climate change (particularly loss of the Arctic sea ice cap), air pollution, and acid rain [2]. All of the above problems have produced several political and economic conflicts that have increased the world investment in research, development and application of alternative technologies for energy generation. Additionally, energy production is necessary for a country development since it is essential for everyday activities www.sciencedirect.com
such as lighting, using electrical appliances, transport, livelihoods, and education by increasing employment opportunities that lead to economic and social benefits [3]. However, most existing projects of energy generation in Colombia are not sustainable in the long term and compete with the energetic monopoly of large oil companies, despite this, there are a wide variety of natural resources (water, solar, wind, geothermal and biomass) that can be exploited for the production of clean energy, referred to as RES, since they take into account population growth, industry, the availability of energy resources, environmental disturbance, and the amount of financial resources for technological, social welfare and cultural development. In democratic societies, social welfare is essential to successfully introduce low carbon technologies as a sustainable alternative to decrease traditional means of energy provision. It becomes a challenge to educate the target population in order to counteract any negative preconceptions or scepticism in using these technologies which can have adverse effect upon their viability and long term success. Thus, it is important to know the attitudes of energy consumers since their attitudes are the foundations of their resulting behaviour [4]. To be sure, numerous parties appear to be involved in RES projects, inputs to the planning and decision making process include expert opinions as well as public feelings and perceptions [3,5]. In this regard, studies on social acceptance of renewable energies (RE) were conducted in both large scale gridconnected projects and small scale stand-alone projects [7,8]. Rogers et al. [9] investigated the small scale RES developments in communities of United Kingdom. Their studies found that majority of residents have a certain level of awareness of RES and are supportive of the implementation. However, only a small number of residents are willing to participate into a community based on RES. Although these actors have different attitudes and conflicting interests, they must find ways to cooperate [6]. Requirements for cooperation include cohesion, elimination of personal interest, complete and correct information, and representation, that is, the participation of all stakeholders in the decision making process [6,7]. Private and public entities that participate are invited to develop sustainable technologies that are economically vital and socially acceptable. Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2015, 10:103–110
104 Process systems engineering
Furthermore, Assefa and Frostell [3] put it nicely by writing, that social effects shape society as a whole and each member individually, and are accompanied by social acceptance that is an important component of sustainability. Then, this paper focuses on identifying and analysing barriers related to three social dimensions of social acceptance (socio-political acceptance, market acceptance, and community acceptance), proposed by [10], that affect the penetration of solar, wind, biomass, mini and micro hydraulic, geothermal, tidal, and wave energy systems in the Colombian market.
Social acceptance dimensions The concept of social acceptance is often used by policy analysts but few researchers have offered clear and useable definitions. In 2007, [10] identify three dimensions to define the concept of social acceptance: Socio-political acceptance: refers to the acceptance of a technology by politics, policy makers, key stakeholders and the public. According to [10], political actors must build effective policies to enhance the community and market acceptance of RES. Thus, making socio-political acceptance the first element required in achieving general social acceptance. Market acceptance: refers to the process of market an adoption of an innovation or the acceptance of a technology by consumers, investors and intra-firm. Community acceptance: refers to the acceptance of the local stakeholders, the communities that are directly affected by the installation of RES. Yet opposition is not uncommon: resistance to a project that is unwanted by the local community is called the NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) phenomenon [2,7,11], and may result in social conflict and economic losses [5]. The opposite phenomenon is called PIMBY (Please in My Back Yard), and is considered to occur when a project is regarded as beneficial (e.g., it may be a source of income) and viewed positively by neighbouring communities [5].
Barriers to RES To gain further insight into the attitudes and acceptation of the public towards RES projects, it is fruitful to search for potential barriers to a RES project, as well as, measures that may be used to lift such barriers and improve the outlook of RES projects [12]. The research literature lists a wide variety of potential barriers that relate to how the public perceives RES projects and how it is impacted by them [5,11,13–15]. Market and socio political factors include economic conditions in the region, problems with (public or private) ownership, unfavourable electricity prices, technology characterized by high initial cost, trade technologies taxes, fossil Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2015, 10:103–110
fuels subsidies, lack of access to credit and financing, emerging market, lack of regulatory framework and government standards. Also, factors related to the perceptions of the public include a lack of information or knowledge on the new technologies, mistrust, lack of impartiality, lack of acceptance by consumers of RES, and suspicion towards investors. As well as the barriers, it is worth considering the main consequences of a RES investment project [2,3,5,11,13, 14,16–20]. Again, these include economic effects such as monetary benefits for nearby communities, for example, the sharing of project profits, new employment opportunities, benefits (or costs) in terms of tourism, and a broader economic boost to the entire region [6]. There are also environmental and quality-of-life impacts that include possible disruption to the balance of nearby ecosystems, visual impacts such as landscape deterioration, noise pollution and vibrations, and other improvements or deteriorations in the quality of life in the area. According to [21] identify and analyze barriers part from the literature survey and study of the existing projects, and also interaction with various stakeholders is required. Broadly, the barriers can be identified using the following approaches: literature on similar projects, barriers, case studies (local, regional, national and international level); site visits should be made to study the projects closely; and finally do interaction with stakeholders (RE target industry, consumers, NGOs, experts, policy makers, and professional associations). The interaction can be through structured interviews and/or questionnaires. This approach is very crucial to identification of the barriers as the perception of stakeholders on barriers may reveal the lacunae in existing policies and help in identification of measures to overcome the barriers. Description of barriers
Understanding the size and nature of the barriers is essential if policies to increase the penetration and social acceptance of RES are to be successful. The validity of these ideas is to be tested through the dialogue with stakeholders in a number of specific, but representative [22]. Then an overview of each of the barriers is shown in Table 1 [21–23].
Method Survey and sample description
A questionnaire survey was conducted to 210 stakeholders involved with RE in Colombia, who were selected at random but also relied upon a respondent’s willingness to participate. These responders are a very large and diverse group that includes government officials, researchers, financial institutions, educators, and the population in general (marketers, suppliers, and consumers). www.sciencedirect.com
Barriers to social acceptance of RES in Colombia Rosso-Cero´n and Kafarov 105
Table 1 Barriers and their description Dimension Socio-political acceptance
Barriers Regulatory framework
Government standards
Market acceptance
Unfavourable electricity prices
High initial capital cost
Trade taxes Fossil fuels subsidies
Lack of access to credit and financing Emerging markets
Community acceptance
Cultural rejection to changes involving the use of RES Lack of acceptance by consumers
The survey was carried out during August 2013, in 27 departmental capital cities of Colombia (were not visited Putumayo, Caqueta´, Vichada, Vaupes, and Guainı´a departments for their difficulty of access or public order problems); the questionnaire was developed based on literature review and has been followed by a pilot testing. No major changes were made as a result of satisfactory pilot testing. Answers were translated and recorded on a separate sheet. The main aim of the survey was collection of information and knowledge of RES related to projects and determines the barriers for their adoption by the community. Then a comprising of quantitative and qualitative questions was employed to build a comprehensive picture of local energy requirements and attitudes towards RE technologies for sustainable energy provision. The questionnaire mixed open and closed questions and included information on: 1. Name/organization, activity performed 2. Projects (RE source and current energy use) 3. Views on renewable energy (assessed by questions about implementation barriers and local acceptability www.sciencedirect.com
Description Missing or ineffective regulatory frame, regulations inadequate to promote RES, unfavourable regulations for RES, lack of implementation of regulations, and unwieldy regulations. The government may restrict or keep out RES through licensing, minimum capital requirements, limiting access to raw materials, pollution control standards, safety and efficacy, among others. Conventional electricity is subsidized, consumers pay below marginal conventional energy cost, average cost pricing is done, and low taxes compared to RES. High interest rates, lack of capital, governmental policies on cost of capital, lack of access to cheap capital, risk perception by financial institutions, inflation, demand for credit, among others. RES production is taxed unfavourably, high import duties on equipment, other direct/indirect taxes on RES. Fossil fuel energy is subsidized, consumers pay below marginal conventional energy cost, average cost pricing is done, and low taxes compared to RES. Undeveloped credit market, lack of financing instruments/institutions, poor credit worthiness, poor consumers’ recovery regulations. Undeveloped supply channels, lack of product visibility and availability, difficult procurement (by consumers), unwieldy requirements for entry, monopoly, and barriers creates by existing suppliers. Resistance to change, cultural reasons, unknown technologies, aesthetic issues, high discount rates of consumers, and inadequate information. Lack of social acceptance for some RES, technology seen as unfamiliar and of no use, lack of local participation, and preference for traditional energy.
of systems in a scale of low, medium and high acceptance) Ranking of barriers
In the present study, each respondent was given a detailed examination of the context of the issues, which are involved together with the list of barriers. They were asked to indicate the importance of the each barrier to them on a five-point scale. The ‘5’ on the scale indicated ‘Very high’ to them (indicating maximum impact of removing a barrier on adoption of technology) and ‘1’ ‘Very low’ (least impact of removing a barrier on adoption of technology). Generally, the ability to make qualitative distinction is represented by attributes, viz., equal, weak and strong or to put it differently, rejection, indifference and acceptance. Each of these can be subdivided into low, medium and high indicating nine scales of distinction. However, [24] indicated that one would need only fivepoint scale to distinguish between rejection and acceptance barriers. Since, this method is simple and appropriate and was used to provide weights to various preferences. Data analysis
All data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and variability among various groups of data (levels of acceptance) Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2015, 10:103–110
106 Process systems engineering
was scored for p 2 0.05 significant. The significance of the interaction between levels for continuous variables was tested by the Tukey’s Honest Significant Difference test. All the analyses were performed with the R package [25].
Table 3
Results and discussion
Unfavourable electricity prices High initial investment cost Trade taxes Fossil fuels subsidies Lack of access to credit and financing Emerging markets
Market acceptance barriers. Barrier level
% Responders Very low Low Medium High Very high
The following are the results of the survey, a total of 200 valid responses were collected and stakeholders participation was distributed in 21.33% government officials, 15.28% researchers, 12.51% marketers, 19.69% suppliers, 4.62% financial institutions, 8.51% educators, and 18.05% consumers.
15.6
12.2 29.4
25.6 17.2
3.3
3.8 17.5
33.9 41.5
13.7 15.0 8.2
14.3 17.6 12.2 17.8 10.4 23.6
24.2 30.2 30.0 25.0 22.0 35.7
10.6
16.5 21.3
28.2 23.4
Socio-political acceptance
To measure the degree of socio-political acceptance two barriers were evaluated as shown in Table 2. The contrast between the levels of barriers give statistical significance (0.003 = p < 0.05); since there is a very high level of lack of regulatory legal framework (39.1%), and government standards (36.3%), which causes the dependence of the different energy sectors (transportation, industrial, residential) count on almost entirely of conventional energy sources (large hydropower generation and fossil fuel). The stakeholders discern about the political difficulties and structural limitations of government agencies responsible for setting energy policies to meet social, environmental, and financial goals. This since are not enough laws in Colombia that encourage the introduction of large plants driven by RES (which are limited to plants up to 20 MW, specifically for wind farms), laws governing that lead to studies, and environmental licenses. However through time, government have made a few specific laws aimed at encouraging the use of RE, for example, the Colombian Law 697 (2001), which states the rational and efficient use of energy and interest in the promotion of non-conventional sources; the Colombian Decree No. 3783 (December 19, 2003), establishes mechanisms and incentives for research and funding for renewable and alternative energy sources; and the Fiscal Reform (November 2002), provides tax exemptions for fifteen years for projects under the clean development mechanism. According the above, it requires dissemination strategies on the benefits that RES may contribute to regional Table 2 Socio-political acceptance barriers. Barrier level
development. Proper assessment of the environmental and social benefits in order to these technologies contributes to the social environment can be an attractive strategy at government level. Market acceptance
Regarding to the dimension of market acceptance six barriers were evaluated as shown in Table 3. The contrast between their levels of barrier give statistical significance ( p < 0.05), therefore high initial investment cost has the highest level of barrier with 41.5%, followed by lack of access to credit, 35.7%, and financing trade taxes, 30.2%, respectively. High initial capital cost barrier is due to no industry manufacturing technologies RE in Colombia and importation of these technologies brings high input costs for solar and wind energy. On the other hand, there is uncertainty in generation capacity and reliability of such technology; this increases the perception of risk to the financial sector. Additionally, RES face relatively higher costs than conventional fossil fuel development. This is mainly due to the characteristics of territorial occupation; little experience dealing with RE type of evaluation and high discretion in terms of evaluation; projects of small scale RES must meet the same set of procedures that larger scale projects and environmental impact assessments are more complex than those of fossil fuel projects. As previously mentioned, there is a very high lack of access to credit and financing barrier, because the financing options available in the country from commercial banks just preparing to offer within their products and are few lines of credit and technical assistance for RES.
% Responders Very low Low Medium High Very high
13.6 Regulatory legal framework Government standards 6.7
14.1
9.8
23.4
39.1
10.6 15.6
30.7
36.3
Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2015, 10:103–110
Besides, public and private credit institutions lack special regulations and experience to manage RES, special incentives that include social and strategic importance from the point of view of the credit amounts, payment deadlines, high interest rates, and loan requirements. www.sciencedirect.com
Barriers to social acceptance of RES in Colombia Rosso-Cero´n and Kafarov 107
With regard to financial market regulations seems to be deficient in support and stability, and the stakeholders agree to emphasize the need for strong state intervention to generate cost-cutting technologies and addressing enough resources to the initial investment.
Table 4
Likewise, trade taxes has a very high level due to the need to broaden the tax base has led to tax marketing and importation of equipment for RES are established; what makes it a disadvantage to RES projects with capital intensive, relative to conventional projects involving less investment per unit of installed capacity.
Cultural rejection to changes involving the use of RES Lack of acceptance by consumers
On the other hand, barriers with high level appear in the following order: fossil fuels subsidies with, 30.0%; and emerging markets, 28.2%. Finally unfavourable electricity price, 29.4%, is a barrier with medium level (see Table 3). According to stakeholders, fuels subsidies barrier has a high level, due to the projects of power generation from RE for national grid whose main barrier is weak regulation does not take into account the factors for development (compulsory purchase, fixed price, fixed term power purchase) of these technologies and the absence of economic incentives (tax, tariff, subsidies, and so on). In addition, these projects compete with abundant resources and low costs such as large-scale hydropower and conventional fossil fuel. Also, the regulatory framework does not have specific rules for the generation of electricity from solar, wind, biomass, geothermal energy, and among others. Moreover, emerging markets barrier has a high level because the development of RES is very recent, except for some projects like wind farm Jepirachi place in La Guajira (North of Colombia), cogeneration plants of sugar industries in Valle del Cauca (West of Colombia), and isolated projects related to small hydro and solar energy that have been abandoned over time. Additionally, in Colombia there are no relevant projects related to geothermal or ocean resources. Finally, unfavourable electricity prices barrier have traditionally been a bottleneck for economic growth. Prolonged electrical and ineffective remedies crisis have led to a vicious cycle of regular blackouts, high operating costs of the distribution companies, major losses (including electricity theft through illegal connections), high retail rates to cover these inefficiencies, low bill collection rates, a significant fiscal burden for the government through direct and indirect subsidies and very high costs for consumers, since many depend on a very expensive self-generated electricity. Community acceptance
With regard to the dimension of community acceptance, two barriers were evaluated to determine the degree of acceptance of local actors to the RES: cultural rejection to www.sciencedirect.com
Community acceptance barriers Barrier level
% Responders Very low
Low
Medium
High
Very high
19.3
15.5
21.9
26.2
17.1
13.8
19.6
24.9
22.2
19.6
changes involving the use of RE and lack of acceptance by consumers. As seen in Table 4, lack of acceptance of the RE has a medium level (24.9%) and cultural rejection to changes involving the use of RE is classified as medium and high level barriers, with 21.9% and 26.2%, respectively. Even though, the RES have lower environmental impacts compared to the energy mega-projects, are facing a growing local opposition. In recent years, the rejection of thermoelectric water projects and dams, have suggested that there is consensus among citizens to advance the construction of projects related to RE. But, there are projects which show only energy from renewable sources is not synonymous with instant approval of the communities living near the project site. This phenomenon attend the increased sensitivity of the public to: (i) relatively large developments in the local level, (ii) the lack of information and knowledge on energy projects in general and RE in particular, and (iii) the perception of harm and risk that the community sees in a particular initiative near its environment. Cultural factors relate to historically shaped traditions and beliefs that the project needs to deal with. These include the level of trust in different institutions involved in the project. Moreover, different local traditions influence the ability of projects. Overall attitudes to new technologies can also influence the acceptability of a project: novelty can be a bonus in some regions, but a cause for concern in others. Then, it is highly recommended to therefore involve the community, informing and making part. For this, it is suggested: create local, regional or national education campaigns about RE, provide and disseminate relevant information on RE, increase dialogue and participation in decision-making and finally is required a good coordination between state, regional and local policies such as the various projects developed for a region. With the aim of assessing what kind of RES are more accepted by local communities, it was evaluate the number of projects related to RES and their grade of acceptation by local community (stakeholders who work directly with these projects). A total of 1187 RES projects were identified with the survey, which the largest proportion is by using solar with 36%, followed by biomass with 20%, Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2015, 10:103–110
108 Process systems engineering
Figure 1
Table 5 Acceptability of RES
Hydrogen Tidal and wave 5% Geothermal 4% 6%
Biomass 20%
Wind 14%
Solar 36%
Mini and micro hydraulic 15%
RES
%High acceptance
%Medium acceptance
%Low acceptance
Solar Wind Biomass Mini and micro hydraulic Geothermal
65.7 49.5 74.5 81.3
24.2 40.1 25.6 16.5
10.1 10.1 – 2.2
8.5
58.5
33.0
of 69%, 69%, and 77%, respectively. About geothermal energy is destined to heating uses with 53%.
Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering
According to the experience in RES projects, respondents were asked their attitudes towards the adoption of RES at home (solar, wind, biomass, mini and micro hydraulic). This question is in particular designed to investigate the level of acceptance of local residents to the adoption of RES ‘in my backyard’. Multiple comparisons of means (Tukey’s test) give statistical significance for the contrast between acceptance levels of RES (0.017 = p < 0.05). As shown in Table 5, mini and micro hydraulic systems remains by far the most important of the RES for power production in Colombia, so around 81.3% of respondents agreed widely with a high acceptance this technology.
Percentage of RES projects by source of energy.
mini and micro hydraulic with 15% and in the last place of tidal and wave energy systems (see Figure 1). It is noteworthy the lack of maturity and technological knowledge in the area of hydrogen, geothermal, wave, and tidal energy systems projects with a stake in only 2%, 9% and 4%, respectively.
It is also worth noting, the high degree of acceptance of biomass systems 74.5%. It is widely accepted since is alternative fuel sources, the elimination of greenhouse gases, and the low cost.
In order to distinguish the end uses of the different RE resources, were assessed three categories: heat, power and chemical uses. As shown in Figure 2, it was found that energy from biomass have mainly chemical (biofuels) use, 48%; regarding energy from wind, sun and, mini and micro hydraulic, are used for power purposes with values
The same holds true for solar energy with 65.7% of high acceptance; respondents highlighted the reasons for
Figure 2
90 77
% Projects of RES
80
69
69
70
53
60 48
50 40
44
Heat
48 47 31
31
30
52
34 33
23
Electricity
33
20 10
8 Chemical
0
s
c
ind
as om i B
o
icr
d
ini
an
uli
ra
W
d hy
m
lar
So
m
er
Ge
h ot
al
en
ve
og
r yd
H
nd
wa
la
da
Ti
M
Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering
Percentage of RES projects by type of energy transformed and use. Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2015, 10:103–110
www.sciencedirect.com
Barriers to social acceptance of RES in Colombia Rosso-Cero´n and Kafarov 109
choosing solar systems as energy conservation and environment protection. It is well recognized by those respondents having solar systems installed at home is a proper supplementary of coal and large hydroelectric. However, the respondents that did not install solar systems were asked to identify the major reason, it is high capital cost. It is seen that people are open to suggest the wind power developments and the promise of some incentive would easily make local wind turbine developments acceptable. It is 49.5% high acceptably and only 10.1% low acceptable, due to several issues as noise pollution, visual intrusion, and effect on wildlife. The attitude of respondents is generally positive towards all RES, whereas geothermal, remains the least supported RES, because this technology is large and needs to be built near the site where it is to be used, since transmission lines for transport can be really expensive. With respect to energy from hydrogen, waves, and tidal, respondents declined to give information since there is no significant progress in this technology in the country.
Conclusion This paper has sought to determine social acceptance of RES in Colombia through three dimensions (socio-political acceptance, market acceptance, and community acceptance) proposed by [10]; this was done through testing barriers and opinions of specific stakeholders. Socio-political issues such as the lack of both, specific supportive and restrictive policies, as well as their stability had an influence on public confidence in the new RES projects. It was also pointed out that joint learning and the development of know-how within a system of comprehensive stakeholders working groups, including local politicians; create a high level of confidence.
It is also worth noting, that the lack of acceptance is linked to unfamiliarity of the RES, which causes are not well regarded by the large community. Therefore, it is necessary to foster programmes, early deployment projects, disseminating information, training and knowledge about these technologies. On the other hand, stakeholders’ interaction should not be seen merely as a way to solve local problems of societal acceptance, but also as a way to find new innovative solutions, which promote the socio-technical evolution of new and sustainable RES. Thus depending on the different physical characteristics of RES, their typical modes of application and level of maturity, different issues are relevant. In this way, the public policy and perception issues are currently dominant for incipient RES such as geothermal, hydrogen and oceanic. On the contrary, other issues such as sitting and local impacts are likely to emerge as they move from demonstration to deployment. In addition, some RES require extensive involvement, adaptation, and acceptance by the community, such as solar and geothermal investments. They struggle more with issues of costs and consumers perceptions of quality. Other technologies, like wind and biomass need to deal with their relations with local residents and integration into the local economy and social structure. However, it is important to note, that critical issues are not only dependent on generic RES, moreover on project designs. Finally, there are also some limitations of this study, for example, relatively small number of usable samples was collected for statistical analysis. Future studies shall pursue to close these gaps by expanding the survey scope in rural areas of Colombia, and it is also essential assessing technical and economic issues, which allow the knowledge, adaptation, and integration of RES by the community.
Acknowledgements With regard to market acceptance, the key issue for Colombia is not the lack of resources in the financial market, but a lack of knowledge by financial institutions involved in the business of RES. Therefore, it is paramount to consider policies abolishing barriers and benefiting RES investments. These policies include mandatory constraints such as more efficient processes, emissions reduction targets, a connection between the local and national energy policies, which provide motivation due to financial incentives and the simplification of licensing procedures. On one hand, new types of RES are far away from being competitive with the country’s traditionally cheap main source of energy (large hydro) and therefore need some sort of public support or subsidies in order to be released. www.sciencedirect.com
The work presented in this paper is a part of result of the research activities in the project: Collection of information and knowledge of stakeholders, potential, projects and activities in renewable energy in Colombia executed with the collaboration of Mining and Energy Planning Unit. We especially wish to thank all our students from Universidad Industrial de Santander who help with the execution of surveys.
References 1.
Mark ZJ, Delucchi A: Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part I: technologies, energy resources, quantities and areas of infrastructure, and materials. Energy Policy 2011, 39:1154-1169.
2.
Economou A: Renewable energy resources and sustainable development in Mykonos (Greece). Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2010, 14:1496-1501.
3.
Assefa G, Frostell B: Social sustainability and social acceptance in technology assessment: a case study of energy technologies. Technol Soc 2007, 29:63-78. Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2015, 10:103–110
110 Process systems engineering
4.
Ek K: Public and private attitudes towards ‘‘green’’ electricity: the case of Swedish wind power. Energy Policy 2005, 33:1677-1689.
5.
Jobert A, Laborgne P, Mimler S: Local acceptance of wind energy: factors of success identified in French and German case studies. Energy Policy 2007, 35:2751-2760.
16. Varun SK, Singal: Review of augmentation of energy needs using renewable energy sources in India. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2007, 11:1607-1615.
6.
Del Rio P, Burguillo M: An empirical analysis of the impact of renewable energy deployment on local sustainability. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2009, 13:1314-1325.
7.
Zoellner J, Schweizer-Ries P, Wemheuer C: Public acceptance of renewable energies: results from case studies in Germany. Energy Policy 2008, 36:4136-4141.
17. Dimitropoulos A, Kontoleon A: Assessing the determinants of local acceptability of wind farm investment: a choice experiment in the Greek Aegean islands. Energy Policy 2009, 37:1842-1854.
8.
9.
Maruyama Y, Nishikido M, Iida T: The rise of community wind power in Japan: enhanced acceptance through social innovation. Energy Policy 2007, 35:2761-2769. Rogers JC, Simmons EA, Convery I, Weatherall A: Public perceptions of opportunities for community-based renewable energy projects. Energy Policy 2008, 36:4217-4226.
10. Wustenhagen R, Maarten W, Burer MJ: Social acceptance of renewable energy innovation: An introduction to the concept. Energy Policy 2007, 35:2683-2691. 11. Kaldellis JK: Social attitude towards wind energy applications in Greece. Energy Policy 2005, 33:595-602. 12. Eleni K, Stigka JA, Paravantis, Mihalakakou Giouli K: Social acceptance of renewable energy sources: a review of contingent valuation applications. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2014, 32:100-106. 13. Mourelatos D, Assimacopoulos L, Papagiannakis A, Zervos A: Large-scale integration of renewable energy sources an action plan for Crete. Energy Policy 1998, 26:751-763. 14. Bakos G: Distributed power generation: a case study of small scale PV power plant in Greece. Apply Energy 2008, 86:1757-1766. 15. Oikonomou EK, Kilias V, Goumas A, Rigopoulos A, Karakatsani E, Damasiotis M et al.: Renewable energy sources (RES) projects
Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2015, 10:103–110
and their barriers on a regional scale: the case study of wind parks in the Dodecanese islands Greece. Energy Policy 2009, 37:4874-4883.
18. Baker KJ, Rylatt RM: Improving the prediction of UK domestic energy-demand using annual consumption-data. Apply Energy 2008, 85:475-482. 19. Hanley N, Nevin C: Appraising renewable energy developments in remote communities: the case of the North Assynt Estate Scotland. Energy Policy 1999, 27:527-547. 20. Sovacool BK, Dhakal S, Gippner O, Bambawale MJ: Halting hydro: a review of the socio-technical barriers to hydroelectric power plants in Nepal. Energy 2011, 36:3468-3476. 21. Painuly JP: Barriers to renewable energy penetration; a framework for analysis. Renew Energy 2001, 24:73-89. 22. Reddy S, Painuly JP: Diffusion of renewable energy technologies – barriers and stakeholders’ perspectives. Renew Energy 2004, 29:1431-1447. 23. Beck F, Martinot E: Renewable energy policies and barriers. Encyclopedia Energy 2004, 5:365-383 Last accessed 08.29.14 at: http://www.martinot.info/Beck_Martinot_AP.pdf. 24. Green PE, Carmone FJ, Smith SM: Multidimensional Scaling and related Techniques in Marketing Analysis. Allyn and Boston Press; 1970. 25. R Development Core Team. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing; 2008:. ISBN 3-900051-07-0, Last accessed 08.29.14 at: http:// www.R-project.org.
www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect Barriers to social acceptance of renewable energy systems in Colombia Ana Marı´a Rosso-Cero´n and Viatcheslav Kafarov This work presents the results of a survey conducted to several stakeholders involved with renewable energy systems (RES) in Colombia. It focuses on identifying and analysing three social dimensions (socio-political acceptance, market acceptance, and community acceptance) that affect the penetration of solar, wind, biomass, mini and micro hydraulic, geothermal, tidal, and wave energy systems in the market. The analysis of the survey outcomes shows that a significant percentage of interviewees notice that the development of RES in Colombia has a lot of barriers. Therefore, this contrasts sharply with the existing local capacity and renewable resources. Barriers related to market acceptance dimension would be the most important issue for implementing RES, followed by socio-political acceptance and community acceptance, respectively. Address Department of Chemical Engineering, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Bucaramanga, Colombia Corresponding author: Kafarov, Viatcheslav ([email protected])
Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2015, 10:103–110 This review comes from a themed issue on Process systems engineering Edited by Mahmoud El-Halwagi and Ka Ming Ng For a complete overview see the Issue and the Editorial Available online 18th November 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.coche.2015.08.003 2211-3398/# 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Introduction Nowadays, energy dependence on fossil fuels (in terms of primary energy consumption representing an average of 35% oil, 27% coal, 23% natural gas, and the rest from alternative energies) triggers significant concerns as they are not renewable energy sources [1]. Furthermore, fossil fuels cause serious environmental impacts such as climate change (particularly loss of the Arctic sea ice cap), air pollution, and acid rain [2]. All of the above problems have produced several political and economic conflicts that have increased the world investment in research, development and application of alternative technologies for energy generation. Additionally, energy production is necessary for a country development since it is essential for everyday activities www.sciencedirect.com
such as lighting, using electrical appliances, transport, livelihoods, and education by increasing employment opportunities that lead to economic and social benefits [3]. However, most existing projects of energy generation in Colombia are not sustainable in the long term and compete with the energetic monopoly of large oil companies, despite this, there are a wide variety of natural resources (water, solar, wind, geothermal and biomass) that can be exploited for the production of clean energy, referred to as RES, since they take into account population growth, industry, the availability of energy resources, environmental disturbance, and the amount of financial resources for technological, social welfare and cultural development. In democratic societies, social welfare is essential to successfully introduce low carbon technologies as a sustainable alternative to decrease traditional means of energy provision. It becomes a challenge to educate the target population in order to counteract any negative preconceptions or scepticism in using these technologies which can have adverse effect upon their viability and long term success. Thus, it is important to know the attitudes of energy consumers since their attitudes are the foundations of their resulting behaviour [4]. To be sure, numerous parties appear to be involved in RES projects, inputs to the planning and decision making process include expert opinions as well as public feelings and perceptions [3,5]. In this regard, studies on social acceptance of renewable energies (RE) were conducted in both large scale gridconnected projects and small scale stand-alone projects [7,8]. Rogers et al. [9] investigated the small scale RES developments in communities of United Kingdom. Their studies found that majority of residents have a certain level of awareness of RES and are supportive of the implementation. However, only a small number of residents are willing to participate into a community based on RES. Although these actors have different attitudes and conflicting interests, they must find ways to cooperate [6]. Requirements for cooperation include cohesion, elimination of personal interest, complete and correct information, and representation, that is, the participation of all stakeholders in the decision making process [6,7]. Private and public entities that participate are invited to develop sustainable technologies that are economically vital and socially acceptable. Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2015, 10:103–110
104 Process systems engineering
Furthermore, Assefa and Frostell [3] put it nicely by writing, that social effects shape society as a whole and each member individually, and are accompanied by social acceptance that is an important component of sustainability. Then, this paper focuses on identifying and analysing barriers related to three social dimensions of social acceptance (socio-political acceptance, market acceptance, and community acceptance), proposed by [10], that affect the penetration of solar, wind, biomass, mini and micro hydraulic, geothermal, tidal, and wave energy systems in the Colombian market.
Social acceptance dimensions The concept of social acceptance is often used by policy analysts but few researchers have offered clear and useable definitions. In 2007, [10] identify three dimensions to define the concept of social acceptance: Socio-political acceptance: refers to the acceptance of a technology by politics, policy makers, key stakeholders and the public. According to [10], political actors must build effective policies to enhance the community and market acceptance of RES. Thus, making socio-political acceptance the first element required in achieving general social acceptance. Market acceptance: refers to the process of market an adoption of an innovation or the acceptance of a technology by consumers, investors and intra-firm. Community acceptance: refers to the acceptance of the local stakeholders, the communities that are directly affected by the installation of RES. Yet opposition is not uncommon: resistance to a project that is unwanted by the local community is called the NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) phenomenon [2,7,11], and may result in social conflict and economic losses [5]. The opposite phenomenon is called PIMBY (Please in My Back Yard), and is considered to occur when a project is regarded as beneficial (e.g., it may be a source of income) and viewed positively by neighbouring communities [5].
Barriers to RES To gain further insight into the attitudes and acceptation of the public towards RES projects, it is fruitful to search for potential barriers to a RES project, as well as, measures that may be used to lift such barriers and improve the outlook of RES projects [12]. The research literature lists a wide variety of potential barriers that relate to how the public perceives RES projects and how it is impacted by them [5,11,13–15]. Market and socio political factors include economic conditions in the region, problems with (public or private) ownership, unfavourable electricity prices, technology characterized by high initial cost, trade technologies taxes, fossil Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2015, 10:103–110
fuels subsidies, lack of access to credit and financing, emerging market, lack of regulatory framework and government standards. Also, factors related to the perceptions of the public include a lack of information or knowledge on the new technologies, mistrust, lack of impartiality, lack of acceptance by consumers of RES, and suspicion towards investors. As well as the barriers, it is worth considering the main consequences of a RES investment project [2,3,5,11,13, 14,16–20]. Again, these include economic effects such as monetary benefits for nearby communities, for example, the sharing of project profits, new employment opportunities, benefits (or costs) in terms of tourism, and a broader economic boost to the entire region [6]. There are also environmental and quality-of-life impacts that include possible disruption to the balance of nearby ecosystems, visual impacts such as landscape deterioration, noise pollution and vibrations, and other improvements or deteriorations in the quality of life in the area. According to [21] identify and analyze barriers part from the literature survey and study of the existing projects, and also interaction with various stakeholders is required. Broadly, the barriers can be identified using the following approaches: literature on similar projects, barriers, case studies (local, regional, national and international level); site visits should be made to study the projects closely; and finally do interaction with stakeholders (RE target industry, consumers, NGOs, experts, policy makers, and professional associations). The interaction can be through structured interviews and/or questionnaires. This approach is very crucial to identification of the barriers as the perception of stakeholders on barriers may reveal the lacunae in existing policies and help in identification of measures to overcome the barriers. Description of barriers
Understanding the size and nature of the barriers is essential if policies to increase the penetration and social acceptance of RES are to be successful. The validity of these ideas is to be tested through the dialogue with stakeholders in a number of specific, but representative [22]. Then an overview of each of the barriers is shown in Table 1 [21–23].
Method Survey and sample description
A questionnaire survey was conducted to 210 stakeholders involved with RE in Colombia, who were selected at random but also relied upon a respondent’s willingness to participate. These responders are a very large and diverse group that includes government officials, researchers, financial institutions, educators, and the population in general (marketers, suppliers, and consumers). www.sciencedirect.com
Barriers to social acceptance of RES in Colombia Rosso-Cero´n and Kafarov 105
Table 1 Barriers and their description Dimension Socio-political acceptance
Barriers Regulatory framework
Government standards
Market acceptance
Unfavourable electricity prices
High initial capital cost
Trade taxes Fossil fuels subsidies
Lack of access to credit and financing Emerging markets
Community acceptance
Cultural rejection to changes involving the use of RES Lack of acceptance by consumers
The survey was carried out during August 2013, in 27 departmental capital cities of Colombia (were not visited Putumayo, Caqueta´, Vichada, Vaupes, and Guainı´a departments for their difficulty of access or public order problems); the questionnaire was developed based on literature review and has been followed by a pilot testing. No major changes were made as a result of satisfactory pilot testing. Answers were translated and recorded on a separate sheet. The main aim of the survey was collection of information and knowledge of RES related to projects and determines the barriers for their adoption by the community. Then a comprising of quantitative and qualitative questions was employed to build a comprehensive picture of local energy requirements and attitudes towards RE technologies for sustainable energy provision. The questionnaire mixed open and closed questions and included information on: 1. Name/organization, activity performed 2. Projects (RE source and current energy use) 3. Views on renewable energy (assessed by questions about implementation barriers and local acceptability www.sciencedirect.com
Description Missing or ineffective regulatory frame, regulations inadequate to promote RES, unfavourable regulations for RES, lack of implementation of regulations, and unwieldy regulations. The government may restrict or keep out RES through licensing, minimum capital requirements, limiting access to raw materials, pollution control standards, safety and efficacy, among others. Conventional electricity is subsidized, consumers pay below marginal conventional energy cost, average cost pricing is done, and low taxes compared to RES. High interest rates, lack of capital, governmental policies on cost of capital, lack of access to cheap capital, risk perception by financial institutions, inflation, demand for credit, among others. RES production is taxed unfavourably, high import duties on equipment, other direct/indirect taxes on RES. Fossil fuel energy is subsidized, consumers pay below marginal conventional energy cost, average cost pricing is done, and low taxes compared to RES. Undeveloped credit market, lack of financing instruments/institutions, poor credit worthiness, poor consumers’ recovery regulations. Undeveloped supply channels, lack of product visibility and availability, difficult procurement (by consumers), unwieldy requirements for entry, monopoly, and barriers creates by existing suppliers. Resistance to change, cultural reasons, unknown technologies, aesthetic issues, high discount rates of consumers, and inadequate information. Lack of social acceptance for some RES, technology seen as unfamiliar and of no use, lack of local participation, and preference for traditional energy.
of systems in a scale of low, medium and high acceptance) Ranking of barriers
In the present study, each respondent was given a detailed examination of the context of the issues, which are involved together with the list of barriers. They were asked to indicate the importance of the each barrier to them on a five-point scale. The ‘5’ on the scale indicated ‘Very high’ to them (indicating maximum impact of removing a barrier on adoption of technology) and ‘1’ ‘Very low’ (least impact of removing a barrier on adoption of technology). Generally, the ability to make qualitative distinction is represented by attributes, viz., equal, weak and strong or to put it differently, rejection, indifference and acceptance. Each of these can be subdivided into low, medium and high indicating nine scales of distinction. However, [24] indicated that one would need only fivepoint scale to distinguish between rejection and acceptance barriers. Since, this method is simple and appropriate and was used to provide weights to various preferences. Data analysis
All data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and variability among various groups of data (levels of acceptance) Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2015, 10:103–110
106 Process systems engineering
was scored for p 2 0.05 significant. The significance of the interaction between levels for continuous variables was tested by the Tukey’s Honest Significant Difference test. All the analyses were performed with the R package [25].
Table 3
Results and discussion
Unfavourable electricity prices High initial investment cost Trade taxes Fossil fuels subsidies Lack of access to credit and financing Emerging markets
Market acceptance barriers. Barrier level
% Responders Very low Low Medium High Very high
The following are the results of the survey, a total of 200 valid responses were collected and stakeholders participation was distributed in 21.33% government officials, 15.28% researchers, 12.51% marketers, 19.69% suppliers, 4.62% financial institutions, 8.51% educators, and 18.05% consumers.
15.6
12.2 29.4
25.6 17.2
3.3
3.8 17.5
33.9 41.5
13.7 15.0 8.2
14.3 17.6 12.2 17.8 10.4 23.6
24.2 30.2 30.0 25.0 22.0 35.7
10.6
16.5 21.3
28.2 23.4
Socio-political acceptance
To measure the degree of socio-political acceptance two barriers were evaluated as shown in Table 2. The contrast between the levels of barriers give statistical significance (0.003 = p < 0.05); since there is a very high level of lack of regulatory legal framework (39.1%), and government standards (36.3%), which causes the dependence of the different energy sectors (transportation, industrial, residential) count on almost entirely of conventional energy sources (large hydropower generation and fossil fuel). The stakeholders discern about the political difficulties and structural limitations of government agencies responsible for setting energy policies to meet social, environmental, and financial goals. This since are not enough laws in Colombia that encourage the introduction of large plants driven by RES (which are limited to plants up to 20 MW, specifically for wind farms), laws governing that lead to studies, and environmental licenses. However through time, government have made a few specific laws aimed at encouraging the use of RE, for example, the Colombian Law 697 (2001), which states the rational and efficient use of energy and interest in the promotion of non-conventional sources; the Colombian Decree No. 3783 (December 19, 2003), establishes mechanisms and incentives for research and funding for renewable and alternative energy sources; and the Fiscal Reform (November 2002), provides tax exemptions for fifteen years for projects under the clean development mechanism. According the above, it requires dissemination strategies on the benefits that RES may contribute to regional Table 2 Socio-political acceptance barriers. Barrier level
development. Proper assessment of the environmental and social benefits in order to these technologies contributes to the social environment can be an attractive strategy at government level. Market acceptance
Regarding to the dimension of market acceptance six barriers were evaluated as shown in Table 3. The contrast between their levels of barrier give statistical significance ( p < 0.05), therefore high initial investment cost has the highest level of barrier with 41.5%, followed by lack of access to credit, 35.7%, and financing trade taxes, 30.2%, respectively. High initial capital cost barrier is due to no industry manufacturing technologies RE in Colombia and importation of these technologies brings high input costs for solar and wind energy. On the other hand, there is uncertainty in generation capacity and reliability of such technology; this increases the perception of risk to the financial sector. Additionally, RES face relatively higher costs than conventional fossil fuel development. This is mainly due to the characteristics of territorial occupation; little experience dealing with RE type of evaluation and high discretion in terms of evaluation; projects of small scale RES must meet the same set of procedures that larger scale projects and environmental impact assessments are more complex than those of fossil fuel projects. As previously mentioned, there is a very high lack of access to credit and financing barrier, because the financing options available in the country from commercial banks just preparing to offer within their products and are few lines of credit and technical assistance for RES.
% Responders Very low Low Medium High Very high
13.6 Regulatory legal framework Government standards 6.7
14.1
9.8
23.4
39.1
10.6 15.6
30.7
36.3
Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2015, 10:103–110
Besides, public and private credit institutions lack special regulations and experience to manage RES, special incentives that include social and strategic importance from the point of view of the credit amounts, payment deadlines, high interest rates, and loan requirements. www.sciencedirect.com
Barriers to social acceptance of RES in Colombia Rosso-Cero´n and Kafarov 107
With regard to financial market regulations seems to be deficient in support and stability, and the stakeholders agree to emphasize the need for strong state intervention to generate cost-cutting technologies and addressing enough resources to the initial investment.
Table 4
Likewise, trade taxes has a very high level due to the need to broaden the tax base has led to tax marketing and importation of equipment for RES are established; what makes it a disadvantage to RES projects with capital intensive, relative to conventional projects involving less investment per unit of installed capacity.
Cultural rejection to changes involving the use of RES Lack of acceptance by consumers
On the other hand, barriers with high level appear in the following order: fossil fuels subsidies with, 30.0%; and emerging markets, 28.2%. Finally unfavourable electricity price, 29.4%, is a barrier with medium level (see Table 3). According to stakeholders, fuels subsidies barrier has a high level, due to the projects of power generation from RE for national grid whose main barrier is weak regulation does not take into account the factors for development (compulsory purchase, fixed price, fixed term power purchase) of these technologies and the absence of economic incentives (tax, tariff, subsidies, and so on). In addition, these projects compete with abundant resources and low costs such as large-scale hydropower and conventional fossil fuel. Also, the regulatory framework does not have specific rules for the generation of electricity from solar, wind, biomass, geothermal energy, and among others. Moreover, emerging markets barrier has a high level because the development of RES is very recent, except for some projects like wind farm Jepirachi place in La Guajira (North of Colombia), cogeneration plants of sugar industries in Valle del Cauca (West of Colombia), and isolated projects related to small hydro and solar energy that have been abandoned over time. Additionally, in Colombia there are no relevant projects related to geothermal or ocean resources. Finally, unfavourable electricity prices barrier have traditionally been a bottleneck for economic growth. Prolonged electrical and ineffective remedies crisis have led to a vicious cycle of regular blackouts, high operating costs of the distribution companies, major losses (including electricity theft through illegal connections), high retail rates to cover these inefficiencies, low bill collection rates, a significant fiscal burden for the government through direct and indirect subsidies and very high costs for consumers, since many depend on a very expensive self-generated electricity. Community acceptance
With regard to the dimension of community acceptance, two barriers were evaluated to determine the degree of acceptance of local actors to the RES: cultural rejection to www.sciencedirect.com
Community acceptance barriers Barrier level
% Responders Very low
Low
Medium
High
Very high
19.3
15.5
21.9
26.2
17.1
13.8
19.6
24.9
22.2
19.6
changes involving the use of RE and lack of acceptance by consumers. As seen in Table 4, lack of acceptance of the RE has a medium level (24.9%) and cultural rejection to changes involving the use of RE is classified as medium and high level barriers, with 21.9% and 26.2%, respectively. Even though, the RES have lower environmental impacts compared to the energy mega-projects, are facing a growing local opposition. In recent years, the rejection of thermoelectric water projects and dams, have suggested that there is consensus among citizens to advance the construction of projects related to RE. But, there are projects which show only energy from renewable sources is not synonymous with instant approval of the communities living near the project site. This phenomenon attend the increased sensitivity of the public to: (i) relatively large developments in the local level, (ii) the lack of information and knowledge on energy projects in general and RE in particular, and (iii) the perception of harm and risk that the community sees in a particular initiative near its environment. Cultural factors relate to historically shaped traditions and beliefs that the project needs to deal with. These include the level of trust in different institutions involved in the project. Moreover, different local traditions influence the ability of projects. Overall attitudes to new technologies can also influence the acceptability of a project: novelty can be a bonus in some regions, but a cause for concern in others. Then, it is highly recommended to therefore involve the community, informing and making part. For this, it is suggested: create local, regional or national education campaigns about RE, provide and disseminate relevant information on RE, increase dialogue and participation in decision-making and finally is required a good coordination between state, regional and local policies such as the various projects developed for a region. With the aim of assessing what kind of RES are more accepted by local communities, it was evaluate the number of projects related to RES and their grade of acceptation by local community (stakeholders who work directly with these projects). A total of 1187 RES projects were identified with the survey, which the largest proportion is by using solar with 36%, followed by biomass with 20%, Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2015, 10:103–110
108 Process systems engineering
Figure 1
Table 5 Acceptability of RES
Hydrogen Tidal and wave 5% Geothermal 4% 6%
Biomass 20%
Wind 14%
Solar 36%
Mini and micro hydraulic 15%
RES
%High acceptance
%Medium acceptance
%Low acceptance
Solar Wind Biomass Mini and micro hydraulic Geothermal
65.7 49.5 74.5 81.3
24.2 40.1 25.6 16.5
10.1 10.1 – 2.2
8.5
58.5
33.0
of 69%, 69%, and 77%, respectively. About geothermal energy is destined to heating uses with 53%.
Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering
According to the experience in RES projects, respondents were asked their attitudes towards the adoption of RES at home (solar, wind, biomass, mini and micro hydraulic). This question is in particular designed to investigate the level of acceptance of local residents to the adoption of RES ‘in my backyard’. Multiple comparisons of means (Tukey’s test) give statistical significance for the contrast between acceptance levels of RES (0.017 = p < 0.05). As shown in Table 5, mini and micro hydraulic systems remains by far the most important of the RES for power production in Colombia, so around 81.3% of respondents agreed widely with a high acceptance this technology.
Percentage of RES projects by source of energy.
mini and micro hydraulic with 15% and in the last place of tidal and wave energy systems (see Figure 1). It is noteworthy the lack of maturity and technological knowledge in the area of hydrogen, geothermal, wave, and tidal energy systems projects with a stake in only 2%, 9% and 4%, respectively.
It is also worth noting, the high degree of acceptance of biomass systems 74.5%. It is widely accepted since is alternative fuel sources, the elimination of greenhouse gases, and the low cost.
In order to distinguish the end uses of the different RE resources, were assessed three categories: heat, power and chemical uses. As shown in Figure 2, it was found that energy from biomass have mainly chemical (biofuels) use, 48%; regarding energy from wind, sun and, mini and micro hydraulic, are used for power purposes with values
The same holds true for solar energy with 65.7% of high acceptance; respondents highlighted the reasons for
Figure 2
90 77
% Projects of RES
80
69
69
70
53
60 48
50 40
44
Heat
48 47 31
31
30
52
34 33
23
Electricity
33
20 10
8 Chemical
0
s
c
ind
as om i B
o
icr
d
ini
an
uli
ra
W
d hy
m
lar
So
m
er
Ge
h ot
al
en
ve
og
r yd
H
nd
wa
la
da
Ti
M
Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering
Percentage of RES projects by type of energy transformed and use. Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2015, 10:103–110
www.sciencedirect.com
Barriers to social acceptance of RES in Colombia Rosso-Cero´n and Kafarov 109
choosing solar systems as energy conservation and environment protection. It is well recognized by those respondents having solar systems installed at home is a proper supplementary of coal and large hydroelectric. However, the respondents that did not install solar systems were asked to identify the major reason, it is high capital cost. It is seen that people are open to suggest the wind power developments and the promise of some incentive would easily make local wind turbine developments acceptable. It is 49.5% high acceptably and only 10.1% low acceptable, due to several issues as noise pollution, visual intrusion, and effect on wildlife. The attitude of respondents is generally positive towards all RES, whereas geothermal, remains the least supported RES, because this technology is large and needs to be built near the site where it is to be used, since transmission lines for transport can be really expensive. With respect to energy from hydrogen, waves, and tidal, respondents declined to give information since there is no significant progress in this technology in the country.
Conclusion This paper has sought to determine social acceptance of RES in Colombia through three dimensions (socio-political acceptance, market acceptance, and community acceptance) proposed by [10]; this was done through testing barriers and opinions of specific stakeholders. Socio-political issues such as the lack of both, specific supportive and restrictive policies, as well as their stability had an influence on public confidence in the new RES projects. It was also pointed out that joint learning and the development of know-how within a system of comprehensive stakeholders working groups, including local politicians; create a high level of confidence.
It is also worth noting, that the lack of acceptance is linked to unfamiliarity of the RES, which causes are not well regarded by the large community. Therefore, it is necessary to foster programmes, early deployment projects, disseminating information, training and knowledge about these technologies. On the other hand, stakeholders’ interaction should not be seen merely as a way to solve local problems of societal acceptance, but also as a way to find new innovative solutions, which promote the socio-technical evolution of new and sustainable RES. Thus depending on the different physical characteristics of RES, their typical modes of application and level of maturity, different issues are relevant. In this way, the public policy and perception issues are currently dominant for incipient RES such as geothermal, hydrogen and oceanic. On the contrary, other issues such as sitting and local impacts are likely to emerge as they move from demonstration to deployment. In addition, some RES require extensive involvement, adaptation, and acceptance by the community, such as solar and geothermal investments. They struggle more with issues of costs and consumers perceptions of quality. Other technologies, like wind and biomass need to deal with their relations with local residents and integration into the local economy and social structure. However, it is important to note, that critical issues are not only dependent on generic RES, moreover on project designs. Finally, there are also some limitations of this study, for example, relatively small number of usable samples was collected for statistical analysis. Future studies shall pursue to close these gaps by expanding the survey scope in rural areas of Colombia, and it is also essential assessing technical and economic issues, which allow the knowledge, adaptation, and integration of RES by the community.
Acknowledgements With regard to market acceptance, the key issue for Colombia is not the lack of resources in the financial market, but a lack of knowledge by financial institutions involved in the business of RES. Therefore, it is paramount to consider policies abolishing barriers and benefiting RES investments. These policies include mandatory constraints such as more efficient processes, emissions reduction targets, a connection between the local and national energy policies, which provide motivation due to financial incentives and the simplification of licensing procedures. On one hand, new types of RES are far away from being competitive with the country’s traditionally cheap main source of energy (large hydro) and therefore need some sort of public support or subsidies in order to be released. www.sciencedirect.com
The work presented in this paper is a part of result of the research activities in the project: Collection of information and knowledge of stakeholders, potential, projects and activities in renewable energy in Colombia executed with the collaboration of Mining and Energy Planning Unit. We especially wish to thank all our students from Universidad Industrial de Santander who help with the execution of surveys.
References 1.
Mark ZJ, Delucchi A: Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part I: technologies, energy resources, quantities and areas of infrastructure, and materials. Energy Policy 2011, 39:1154-1169.
2.
Economou A: Renewable energy resources and sustainable development in Mykonos (Greece). Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2010, 14:1496-1501.
3.
Assefa G, Frostell B: Social sustainability and social acceptance in technology assessment: a case study of energy technologies. Technol Soc 2007, 29:63-78. Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2015, 10:103–110
110 Process systems engineering
4.
Ek K: Public and private attitudes towards ‘‘green’’ electricity: the case of Swedish wind power. Energy Policy 2005, 33:1677-1689.
5.
Jobert A, Laborgne P, Mimler S: Local acceptance of wind energy: factors of success identified in French and German case studies. Energy Policy 2007, 35:2751-2760.
16. Varun SK, Singal: Review of augmentation of energy needs using renewable energy sources in India. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2007, 11:1607-1615.
6.
Del Rio P, Burguillo M: An empirical analysis of the impact of renewable energy deployment on local sustainability. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2009, 13:1314-1325.
7.
Zoellner J, Schweizer-Ries P, Wemheuer C: Public acceptance of renewable energies: results from case studies in Germany. Energy Policy 2008, 36:4136-4141.
17. Dimitropoulos A, Kontoleon A: Assessing the determinants of local acceptability of wind farm investment: a choice experiment in the Greek Aegean islands. Energy Policy 2009, 37:1842-1854.
8.
9.
Maruyama Y, Nishikido M, Iida T: The rise of community wind power in Japan: enhanced acceptance through social innovation. Energy Policy 2007, 35:2761-2769. Rogers JC, Simmons EA, Convery I, Weatherall A: Public perceptions of opportunities for community-based renewable energy projects. Energy Policy 2008, 36:4217-4226.
10. Wustenhagen R, Maarten W, Burer MJ: Social acceptance of renewable energy innovation: An introduction to the concept. Energy Policy 2007, 35:2683-2691. 11. Kaldellis JK: Social attitude towards wind energy applications in Greece. Energy Policy 2005, 33:595-602. 12. Eleni K, Stigka JA, Paravantis, Mihalakakou Giouli K: Social acceptance of renewable energy sources: a review of contingent valuation applications. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2014, 32:100-106. 13. Mourelatos D, Assimacopoulos L, Papagiannakis A, Zervos A: Large-scale integration of renewable energy sources an action plan for Crete. Energy Policy 1998, 26:751-763. 14. Bakos G: Distributed power generation: a case study of small scale PV power plant in Greece. Apply Energy 2008, 86:1757-1766. 15. Oikonomou EK, Kilias V, Goumas A, Rigopoulos A, Karakatsani E, Damasiotis M et al.: Renewable energy sources (RES) projects
Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 2015, 10:103–110
and their barriers on a regional scale: the case study of wind parks in the Dodecanese islands Greece. Energy Policy 2009, 37:4874-4883.
18. Baker KJ, Rylatt RM: Improving the prediction of UK domestic energy-demand using annual consumption-data. Apply Energy 2008, 85:475-482. 19. Hanley N, Nevin C: Appraising renewable energy developments in remote communities: the case of the North Assynt Estate Scotland. Energy Policy 1999, 27:527-547. 20. Sovacool BK, Dhakal S, Gippner O, Bambawale MJ: Halting hydro: a review of the socio-technical barriers to hydroelectric power plants in Nepal. Energy 2011, 36:3468-3476. 21. Painuly JP: Barriers to renewable energy penetration; a framework for analysis. Renew Energy 2001, 24:73-89. 22. Reddy S, Painuly JP: Diffusion of renewable energy technologies – barriers and stakeholders’ perspectives. Renew Energy 2004, 29:1431-1447. 23. Beck F, Martinot E: Renewable energy policies and barriers. Encyclopedia Energy 2004, 5:365-383 Last accessed 08.29.14 at: http://www.martinot.info/Beck_Martinot_AP.pdf. 24. Green PE, Carmone FJ, Smith SM: Multidimensional Scaling and related Techniques in Marketing Analysis. Allyn and Boston Press; 1970. 25. R Development Core Team. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing; 2008:. ISBN 3-900051-07-0, Last accessed 08.29.14 at: http:// www.R-project.org.
www.sciencedirect.com