Expectations for Renewable Energy, and Its Impacts on Quality of Life in European Union Countries

Abstract

The primary goals of the study are to present a qualitative examination of household awareness of renewable energy sources and to ascertain their requirements, as well as their expectations for an improvement in quality of life as a consequence of using renewable energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution while improving public health. There are no empirical studies examining the level of household awareness of renewable energy in EU countries, so this gap is also considered a further area of empirical research. Seven European nations were selected for the study: the Czech Republic, Slovenia, France, Portugal, Spain, Austria, and Germany. The survey was conducted from April 2021 to June 2022 with over 17030 respondents. Additionally, it was given a statistical analysis by using the C-Pearson coefficient. Results of our study showed that households’ awareness is low and they also expect that they will not pay more for tourist services that use renewable energy sources. Moreover, results showed that when renewable energy sources are used, in households’ opinions, levels of CO2 will decrease and that this will have a favorable effect on the environment, but they still think that this will have a detrimental influence on their health.

Sustainable Development Processes for Renewable Energy Technology II: An Overview

“…The access of national producers to cheap renewable energy determines the future quality of life and the state of the environment, and this has been convincingly proven in a number of works, i.e., [25][26][27]. This Special Issue follows this trend; for example, in their article, A. Pacana, D. Siwiec, L. Bednárová, and J. Petrovský take environmental factors into account along with quality in modeling a product and its life cycle [28].…”

Does Renewable Energy Matter for Economic Growth and Happiness?

“…Taking into account the type of renewable energy sources, the spatial approach and the time scope, it should be stated that this issue has not been definitively resolved [30]. Moreover, research shows that the awareness of households in EU countries regarding renewable energy sources and their requirements and expectations for improving the quality of life is low [31]. Other studies have indicated that the use of renewable energy sources is considered too expensive for low-income families to use this type of energy [32].…”