Geothermal energy in Switzerland: Feelings, attitudes, and lessons for policy

For energy technologies to be deployed, a supportive public has come to weigh more heavily in recent years, calling for a better understanding of attitude formation towards energy technologies. This is especially true for geothermal energy, an energy source that is relatively unknown to the public but can offer great potential in both heat and electricity production, contributing to the energy transition. This study investigates public support for shallow and deep geothermal projects by focusing on the role of seismic risk through conducting an experimental survey with a representative sample of the Swiss population (n=1’018). We find that priming individuals about past earthquakes influences attitudes towards both deep and shallow geothermal projects but that a spillover effect for the latter exist only for individuals with no familiarity with the technology. The results further reveal that initial feelings about geothermal energy have a strong influence on attitudes towards geothermal projects. Moreover, we find perseverance of feelings for people who had initial positive feelings about geothermal energy, while those who had negative feelings appear to react positively to new information. While seismicity risk was shown to affect attitudes, initial feelings about the technology seem to matter more, calling for a better understanding and more attention to them from researchers, project developers and policymakers.