The public acceptance of hydrogen fuel cell applications in Europe

Abstract

There is increasing realisation amongst policy makers and industry that ‘social acceptance’ is a key issue in the deployment of low carbon energy technologies and infrastructures in Europe. The development of hydrogen fuel cell technologies (HFCs) involves small-scale residential and transport applications, as well as large-scale infrastructures, the socio-technical embedment of which will be influenced by the public and stakeholders in various roles. Previous research on public acceptance has investigated public perceptions of HFCs in specific countries. Here we present survey data on a multi-country scale, using a multivariate, socio-psychological approach. We particularly focus on cross-country differences in selfreported awareness and familiarity, global attitude and support in relation to mobile and residential HFC applications. Our data shows that less than half of the population in the seven countries are aware of the existence of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in the context of energy production. The level of familiarity with both applications is low, and less than 10% of respondents consider themselves familiar with these applications. In general, respondents in the seven countries have a positive initial attitude towards HFC technologies and are likely to accept and support the adoption of residential fuel cells and HFCEVs. The seven populations studied are similar in their attitudes towards HFC technologies, but there are small to moderate differences in awareness and acceptance of HFC applications across countries. We finally found that positive and negative affect, perceived benefits, preference for alternative technologies, trust, and age were significant correlates of acceptance of HFC applications. We consider the implications of these differences for the public acceptance of HFCs.