Renewable energy backed by public

A new survey has been published by the Department for Energy and Climate Change. It reveals the public is in support of onshore wind and solar farms. Solar was shown to be the most popular method of energy generation with 76% of respondents answering in favour. On shore wind has the support of 59% of respondents.

With regard to opposition, 4% of the public indicated an opposition to solar farms, whilst 8% did not agree with onshore wind farms.

Good Energy, an energy company carried out its own similar survey on 2000 respondents which asked the same questions as those by the DECC. The results show the same strong support of solar.

Will Vooght, Head of Innovation at Good Energy said:

“Renewables have been performing brilliantly recently – providing 22.2% of the UK’s electricity in the first three months of the year. Solar alone provided 15% of our electricity needs on one day last month. These stats indicate that opposition to renewables remains consistently low, showing it’s a vocal minority dictating policy - flying in the face of public support.” ““The old adage goes ‘if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it’. The government seem to have realised they can’t manage public opinion so instead they just won’t measure it.” Alastair Cameron, renewables campaigner at Friends of the Earth said:

"Renewable energy like wind and solar power is incredibly popular, and it is frankly astonishing that the Government continues to make it harder for people to use it.” "Failing to back renewables now is like attacking mobile phones in the early 1990s - renewables are already far cheaper than nuclear and closing in on gas from new power stations.” "David Cameron is going to have to work really hard in the run up to the climate talks in Paris if he is to convince the world he's not trying to take the UK back to the dark ages."

Sonia Dunlop, spokesperson for the Solar Trade Association, also commented on the findings:

“DECC’s surveys have consistently shown that solar power is the UK’s favourite way of generating electricity. This new survey confirms this. We would like to see the Government take solar’s public popularity into account when making key policy decisions on support for this sunshine technology over the next few months.”