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Julia Cousse
Former Member
Last Name
Cousse
First name
Julia
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+41 71 224 2945
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PublicationInformed Citizen Panels on the Swiss Electricity Mix 2035: Longer-Term Evolution of Citizen Preferences and Affect in Two Cities(MDPI, )
;Dubois, Alexane ;Holzer, Simona ;Xexakis, GeorgiosTrutnevyte, Evelina -
PublicationStill in love with solar energy? Installation size, affect, and the social acceptance of renewable energy technologiesSolar and wind energy are expected to play a key role in creating a climate-neutral Europe by 2050 and decarbonizing energy production in general, albeit requiring significant deployment. This presupposes that the population accepts such energy sources, thus necessitates understanding how people perceive energy systems. Unlike the abundant literature about wind energy, social acceptance of solar energy has received less attention, especially concerning large solar installations. Opinion polls indicate that solar energy enjoys a high level of socio-political acceptance and is preferred to other renewables, although it is unclear whether this acceptance persists as the technology is deployed on a large scale. This paper helps close this gap by describing the results of a representative survey (n = 601) conducted using a between-subject design to examine how attitudes of the public towards solar energy vary based on the size of installations, how the latter compare to attitudes towards wind energy, and what the role of affect is in the former. Results reveal that the stronger preference for solar power decreases to a similar level as that for wind energy when comparing installation of similar sizes, highlighting that solar energy installations may not easily be scaled up. The study also shows that affect plays an important role in forming people’s attitudes towards wind and solar, especially concerning large-scale installations. This underlines the need for policymakers and project developers, who aim to deploy renewables on a large scale, to attend to the affective component of decision-making.Type: journal articleJournal: Renewable and Sustainable Energy ReviewsVolume: 145Issue: 111107
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PublicationType: journal articleJournal: Energy Research & Social ScienceVolume: 70
Scopus© Citations 47 -
PublicationType: conference paper
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PublicationType: conference paper
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PublicationHow heuristics are micro-foundations of business model co-innovation( 2018)
;Vernay, Anne-LorèneType: conference paper -
PublicationAffect Matters: Going Beyond Rational Decision-Making Processes to Understand Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy SourcesDecarbonizing energy production is a crucial lever for mitigating climate change. Despite impressive learning curves in relation to renewables, and high levels of socio-political as well as market acceptance, implementation is proving difficult due to a lack of local acceptance. A better understanding of the drivers underlying social acceptance is essential for helping policymakers and project developers craft new strategies for managing processes at the local level, and thus supporting the implementation of low-carbon policies. With this thesis, I increase understanding of the factors underlying social acceptance of renewables by focusing on the role of affect in the implementation of wind, solar and geothermal energy projects. I present recommendations to project developers and policy makers for better integrating energy projects into local communities, and highlight to researchers the importance of measuring affective factors, in addition to cognitive factors, to advance energy acceptance research. In the first paper, I explore peoples affective reactions to wind energy and the impact of the latter on local attitudes towards wind energy projects. I find that affective evaluations of wind energy differ between mild and strong opponents. The results show that policymakers and project developers should not be blinded by the vocal opinions of strong opponents but pay more attention to those who have mixed feelings about the technology (i.e., the silent majority). In the second paper, I examine the role of installation size and affect in forming attitudes towards solar energy. Results reveal that when comparing solar and wind energy installations of similar sizes, the stronger preference for solar energy decreases to a similar level as that of wind energy. Policymakers may thus encounter comparable challenges with large-scale solar to those associated with wind energy projects. The study also shows that affect is especially important in shaping peoples attitudes in the case of large-scale installations. In the third paper, I investigate the role of seismic risk of deep geothermal energy on affect, emotions, and attitudes towards shallow and deep geothermal projects. Results show that being informed about geothermal energy can positively impact peoples affect about the technology. They also show that a spillover effect of seismic risk awareness on perceptions about shallow geothermal projects is identifiable in terms of affect and emotions, but not through attitudes, highlighting the importance of measuring affective factors in addition to cognitive factors in energy acceptance research.Type: doctoral thesis
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Publication10th consumer barometer of renewable energy(Chair for Management of Renewable Energies, University of St. Gallen, 2020)Type: journal issue (edt.)Journal: Chair for Management of Renewable Energies, University of St. Gallen