Renewables continue to enjoy widespread support amongst Brits, according to the latest results of the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s public opinion tracker.
The tenth wave of DECC’s public attitudes tracker reveals that support for renewables is still extremely high, with 79% of those polled expressing support for the generation of energy from renewable sources.
In particular, solar enjoys the most support with 82% of those asked supporting its deployment in the UK followed by wave and tidal (73%), offshore wind (72%), onshore wind (67%) and biomass (60%).
In terms of energy efficiency, 75% of those asked sad that they gave a lot or a fair amount of thought to saving energy in their home.
As for renewable heat, 42% of those surveyed said that they were positive about having a renewable heating system in their home. General awareness of renewable heat systems remains high with 69% of respondents aware of renewable heat technologies. Of all renewable heat technologies, micro CHP is the most popular (71%) followed by air source heat pump (67%), ground source heat pump (63%) and biomass (53%).
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Shale fail
The government figures show that support for fracking is dropping with just 24% of Brits supporting the extraction of shale gas – down from 29% in March 2014. The figure is in stark contrast to polling data published by UK Onshore Oil and Gas which claimed that 57% of Brits supported fracking. The survey was widely criticised for leading questions and misleading question structure.
In addition, the amount of Brits concerned about the UK’s energy security has declined, with 48% stating that they were concerned about power cuts becoming more frequent compared to 61% last March.
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