Elisabetta Strazzera, FOSTEr in MED context analysis coordinator (DSSI - Department of Social Sciences and Institutions - University of Cagliari), presents project research to assess public acceptance of solar energy, energy consumption and production trends, local regulations related to the field of solar technologies. ### FOSTEr in MED project kick-off meeting was held in Cagliari, on February 26th 2013. The total budget of FOSTEr in MED project is 4,5 million Euro and it is financed for an amount of 4,05 milion Euro by European union through the ENPI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme (www.enpicbcmed.eu). For more information, please contact: Project Management Office DICAAR Via Marengo 2 – 09123 Cagliari (Italy) Ph. +39 070 6755811 email management@fosterinmed.eu | visibility@fosterinmed.eu

2. Department of Social Science and Institutions
• DSSI is a multidisciplinary department
• Researchers work in different fields of Social
Science: Sociology, Economics, Statistics,
Social Psychology, Law, International Studies,
Political Science

3. Department of Social Science and Institutions
• The DSSI staff which is taking part in the project
is:
– Prof. Elisabetta Strazzera (Economist - Coordinator)
– Dr. Aide Esu (Sociologist)
– Dr. Marina Mura (Social Psychologist)
• The team will coordinate the WP4 activities

4. WP4. Context Analysis
Workpackage Coordination:
UNICA -DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
INSTITUTIONS
Partners and regions involved in the WP: UNICA
(Italy, Sardinia); ASCAME (Spain, Catalunya);
CEEBA (Egypt, Al-Iskandanyah); IRI (Lebanon,
Lebanon); RSS (Jordan, Al-Aqaba); CCI (Tunisia,
Tunis)

5. Aim of WP4
• WP4 is devoted to perform the context
analysis.
• In each region involved in the project a
research will be conducted to assess:
– Knowledge and public acceptance of solar energy
– Energy consumption and production trends
– Local regulation standards in the area.

6. General Information
• The Context Analysis will be performed by each
partner first through a desk approach and then
through a survey, with interviews to local
stakeholders (6 in-depth interviews in each partner
region), and administration of questionnaires to local
consumers (100 in each partner regions)
• The DSSI staff will deliver a qualitative analysis. The
collected information will be used to plan activities in
the WP5. Territorial Animation.

7. Detailed Activities
• Desk analysis (on local normative aspects, current
energy status, etc.): the information required to
set the frame of in-depth interviews and to
design the questionnaire
• Workshop Training for local data collectors
(selected by the project partners)
• Survey instruments (frame of in-depth interviews
and questionnaires)

8. Department of Social Science and Institutions
• In recent years, our group has undertaken a number
of studies on the social acceptability of renewable
energies and green technologies
• The aim of our work is to identify the determinants
of consumers’ preferences and behaviours using a
multidisciplinary approach
• One objective of this line of research is to give
indications to policy makers and help the design of
effective programmes to develop more sustainable
energy consumption

9. Our studies on Demand and
Acceptability of Renewable Energy
• Recent studies:
– Acceptability of Wind Farms projects, and
evaluation of monetary compensations
– Acceptability and assessment of consumers’
willingness to pay for green vs. brown energy
– Acceptability of “smart city” policies (RE-EE
technologies in building sector; sustainable
mobility)

10. Acceptability of Wind Farms
• Strazzera E, Mura M, Contu D (2012). Combining choice
experiments with psychometric scales to assess the social
acceptability of wind energy projects: A latent class approach.
ENERGY POLICY, vol.48, p. 334-347, Energy Policy 48 Elsevier
• It was found that visual impacts on valued sites are
an important factor of opposition toward a project.
This effect is larger when identity values are attached
to the specific site, so much that no compensation
would be acceptable for individuals characterized by
strong place attachment.

11. Acceptability of Wind Farms
• Conversely, other groups are willing to accept
compensations, in form of private and/or public
benefits.
• The distribution of benefits in the territory, and
preservation of the option value related to the
possible development of an archeological site, are
important for individuals concerned with the
sustainability of the local economy

12. Demand of green electricity
• Strazzera E, Mura M, Statzu V (2012). Powering the change: a
Contingent Valuation study on the determinants of demand
for green vs. brown energy. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL
ECONOMICS AND POLICY, vol. 1, p. 146-173, Routledge
• A Contingent Valuation study was performed to
assess a potential trade-off between external costs
(impacts on health caused by pollution) and the cost
of electricity paid by households.

13. Demand of green electricity
• Two technologies were selected for the valuation
exercise: coal-fired thermal and solar photovoltaic.
• Our results show that households are interested in
buying solar energy, and are willing to pay an
additional premium for it, which would support
maintenance of a feed-in tariff system.

14. Demand of green electricity
• According to the results of our study, if electric
utilities were required by regulators to provide
detailed information on the external effects
(and in particular, on health impacts) of coal
and other fossil fuels used in their energy mix,
there will be a sizeable increase in the
demand of green electric energy in the
household sector.

15. Acceptability of Policies supporting Solar
Technologies in the Residential sector
• Research funded by the Regional Government
of Sardinia (LR7-call 2008)
• Partners of the project: DSSI, DICAAR and
Dept. of Psychology

16. Acceptability of Policies supporting Solar
Technologies in the Residential Sector
• Preliminary results show that on average the
individuals in the sample would give support to
public policies that increase the adoption of PV
panels and energy efficiency of buildings, while they
seem less keen on public support to solar thermal.

17. Acceptability of Policies supporting Solar
Technologies in the Residential sector
• However, when the same individual was asked
to choose as a private consumer, there was no
significant difference in terms of preferences
across technologies

18. Acceptability of Policies supporting Solar
Technologies in the Residential sector
• The period of investment return is an
important factor, as well as certainty on the
length of the bureaucratic process; in general
people are willing to pay something more in
their bills to decrease emissions from their
home

19. Acceptability of Policies supporting Solar
Technologies in the Residential sector
• These (and further) results may be useful for
the context analysis of our WP4 in the FOSTER
in MED project.

20. WP4 greetings
Thank you for your attention!
WP4 Coordinator team (DSSI):
• Elisabetta Strazzera (strazzera@unica.it)
• Aide Esu (esu@unica.it)
• Marina Mura (mamura@unica.it)