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Brits’ love affair with renewable grows ever stronger
April 30, 2013
Brits’ love affair with renewable grows ever stronger
The survey of more than 2,000 people carried out by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) last month found that public support for onshore wind power reached a 12-month high.
The fifth Public Attitudes Tracking Survey, which DECC has been running since March last year, confirms support for the use of renewable energy rose from 79 percent at that start of the year to 82 percent in March. Significantly, onshore wind power saw support increase by four percentage points since the start of the year to 68 percent, meaning support is now at its highest level since the surveys began. Opposition to onshore wind power, meanwhile, has fallen two percentage points since January to 11 percent.
According to the survey, solar power remains the most popular renewable technology garnering 85 percent support, an increase on the 82 percent support secured last June. The survey also reveals a significant increase in public awareness of fracking, likely driven by a surge in media reports about the emerging technology and its potential to exploit UK shale gas reserves. Awareness of the practice rose to 52 percent, from 42 percent last year, but the survey did not ask whether people were in favor of shale gas development or not.
Nuclear power also saw levels of support rise three percentage points to 40 percent since the start of the year, although it also confirmed that 23 percent are opposed and 35 percent neither support nor oppose its use.
Read more at Business Green.
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