Acceptance and Potential of Renewable Energy Sources Based on Biomass in Rural Areas of Hungary

Abstract

The main focus of the paper is the investigation of the social potential of local renewable energy utilization in a rural peripheral region in Hungary. Public acceptance of biomass-based renewable energy sources can be crucial for rural communities in realization of their sustainable development strategy. The research area was Koppany Valley Natur Park 2000, a microregion of 10 settlements located in the South Transdanubian region. This microregion is characterized by poor and depressive socioeconomic and demographical conditions, despite its significant natural resources. The microregion’s complex development strategy includes the utilization of local resources of renewable energy. Local population survey (n = 310) was conducted (in May 2018) on local biomass potential, knowledge, and attitudes of the local stakeholders in the microregion. Multinomial logistic regression model estimates the acceptance of population, explanatory variables are categorical demographical (personal) factors and specific factors (based on answers of respondents). Trust in local authorities, knowledge on biomass in general and on specific technologies, as well as the education level of rural inhabitants are significant factors in supporting biomass plant establishment. Further, the group and characteristics of acceptance groups that the local development strategy may consider were defined.

Use of Renewable Energy Sources in the European Union and the Visegrad Group Countries—Results of Cluster Analysis

“…In practice, the environmental benefits of adopting renewable energy sources are undeniable today, and they are increasingly explored and analyzed in the literature. Research in this area has been carried out not only at the European Union level [91,92] but also at the level of individual countries, e.g., Germany [93,94], Hungary [95,96], France [97], Greece [98] or Spain [99].…”

Aceptación social de las energías renovables en Europa: Estudio comparativo entre la provincia de Jaén (España) y condado de Somogy (Hungría)

“…Para el condado de Somogy, el tamaño de la muestra fue de un total de 101 encuestados (n=101), lo que implica un margen de error del 9,75% en la extrapolación al conjunto de la población, según la formula aplicada anteriormente para el caso de Jaén, lo que supone un nivel de confianza de la encuesta del 90,25%. La proporción de encuestados femeninos y masculinos fue del 54% y 46%, respectivamente, y con una mayor representatividad de los grupos de edad de más de 60 años (22,77% de los encuestados y de 51 a 60 años (20,79%) Dicha representatividad coincide con una estructura de edad de los habitantes del condado fuertemente envejecida (Titov et al, 2021).…”

Technological appropriateness of biomass production in rural settings: Addressing water hyacinths (E. crassipes) problem in Lake Tondano, Indonesia

“…Therefore, the three tiers of technological appropriateness may theoretically be stated as a holistic understanding to pursue a sustainable state of technology application in BSC-driven LED effort from multiple perspectives (technical, economic, environmental, social). The pursuit of technological appropriateness of biomass production technologies in BSC shall then include considerations from rural stakeholders [45,92,93]. The combined perspective then represents the interests of those actors in aiming at an ultimate, if not sole, goal for improving local conditions [46,58,[93][94][95].…”

“…The pursuit of technological appropriateness of biomass production technologies in BSC shall then include considerations from rural stakeholders [45,92,93]. The combined perspective then represents the interests of those actors in aiming at an ultimate, if not sole, goal for improving local conditions [46,58,[93][94][95]. As the result, ensuring technological appropriateness in rural BSC can produce a competitive biomass production and strengthen the sustainable development of the rural area.…”