Tidal energy is a new renewable energy source that can be used to provide electricity to remote islands, while contributing to climate change mitigation. Like all renewable energy projects, public awareness and support are not only crucial for the successful development of marine renewable energy projects too, but also aid the private sector project developers in making long-term plans. As information about tidal energy is not easily available, public views toward it are not well known, making it challenging for the project developers to strategize implementation strategies. Moreover, the limited studies focusing on such social aspects of tidal energy come from advanced countries, highlighting the lack of focus on cases from developing countries. Our study fulfills this gap by providing a case study focusing on the social aspects of tidal energy in a developing country, which can be utilized by developers for designing their public engagement strategies. We estimate the public support for tidal energy in eastern Indonesia using two methods: (a) stages of development and (b) information provision. Using the first method, we found that support for tidal energy is lower in the initial stages, but it keeps rising once the public can realize the benefits. The second method shows that though people tend to support tidal energy, the role of information provision is dissimilar compared with western cases. Additionally, Probit modeling shows that Age, Education, Collective Outcome Favorability, and especially, Individual Outcome Favorability are the key factors that positively impact the support for tidal energy in eastern Indonesia.

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Background Public awareness is crucial for successful deployment of tidal energy, a renewable energy source that can provide clean electricity to remote islands. However, considering public attitudes on tidal energy are not well known, especially in developing countries, a barrier exists in implementing public engagement strategies. This study aims to contribute by identifying strategies for information provision—the initial step in public engagement—and estimate how these can be engaged to enhance support for tidal energy among the local public in a remote area of a developing country, in this case, Flores Timur Regency, Indonesia, considering their socio-cultural background. Methods In this paper, we employ statistical analyses using multinomial probit modelling to identify the key variables that shape information flow. The aptness of the variables is then verified using post-estimation techniques for their use as input parameters for the simulation of the information flow in the field study area. Agent-based simulation (ABS) is employed to replicate the actual conditions in Flores Timur Regency, Indonesia, and simulate the flow of information through the local community. Results According to the multinomial probit estimations, the people belonging to the top hierarchical group show a higher probability to support tidal energy compared to the members belonging to the lower groups. Understandably, around twice as many information flow cycles are needed to disseminate information to the members of the lowest hierarchical group, compared to the members of the top hierarchical group. The results also show that increasing the amount of available information has a positive impact on information dissemination. Conclusions This study demonstrated that information provision is highly effective with propagation of information that specifically highlights the individual benefits, rather than the community benefits of tidal energy. Additionally, savings in terms of costs, time, and efforts can be realized if the most influential members of the local community are targeted initially before including all other stakeholders. The study also indicated that locals absorb more information and increase their support for tidal energy when additional data is made available. Finally, as long-term strategy, information provision becomes most effective when the local population gains higher educational capabilities.

BackgroundPublic awareness is crucial for successful deployment of tidal energy, a renewable energy source that can provide clean electricity to remote islands. However, considering public attitudes on tidal energy are not well known, especially in developing countries, a barrier exists in implementing public engagement strategies. This study aims to contribute by identifying strategies for information provision – the initial step in public engagement – and estimate how these can be engaged to enhance support for tidal energy among the local public in a remote area of a developing country, in this case, Flores Timur Regency, Indonesia, considering their socio-cultural background.MethodsIn this paper we employ statistical analyses using Multinomial Probit modelling to identify the key variables that shape information flow. The aptness of the variables is then verified using post-estimation techniques for their use as input parameters for simulation of the information-flow in the field study area. Agent-Based Simulation (ABS) is employed to replicate the actual conditions in Flores Timur regency, Indonesia and simulate the flow of information through the local community.ResultsAccording to the Multinomial Probit estimations, the people belonging to the top hierarchical group show a higher probability to support tidal energy compared to the members belonging to the lower groups. Understandably, it takes around twice as many information flow cycles to disseminate information to the members of the lowest hierarchical group, compared to the members of the top hierarchical group. Results also show that increasing the amount of available information has a positive impact on information dissemination.ConclusionsThis study found that information provision is highly effective with propagation of information that specifically highlights the individual benefits, rather than the community benefits of tidal energy. Additionally, savings in terms of cost, time, and effort can be realized if the most influential members of the local community are targeted initially before including all other stakeholders. The study also found that locals absorb more information and increase their support for tidal energy when additional data is made available. Finally, albeit long-term strategy, information provision becomes most effective when the local population gains higher educational capabilities.

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