Cousse, JuliaJuliaCousse2023-04-132023-04-132021-09-20https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/109904Decarbonizing energy production is a crucial lever for mitigating climate change. Despite impressive learning curves in relation to renewables, and high levels of socio-political as well as market acceptance, implementation is proving difficult due to a lack of local acceptance. A better understanding of the drivers underlying social acceptance is essential for helping policymakers and project developers craft new strategies for managing processes at the local level, and thus supporting the implementation of low-carbon policies. With this thesis, I increase understanding of the factors underlying social acceptance of renewables by focusing on the role of affect in the implementation of wind, solar and geothermal energy projects. I present recommendations to project developers and policy makers for better integrating energy projects into local communities, and highlight to researchers the importance of measuring affective factors, in addition to cognitive factors, to advance energy acceptance research. In the first paper, I explore peoples affective reactions to wind energy and the impact of the latter on local attitudes towards wind energy projects. I find that affective evaluations of wind energy differ between mild and strong opponents. The results show that policymakers and project developers should not be blinded by the vocal opinions of strong opponents but pay more attention to those who have mixed feelings about the technology (i.e., the silent majority). In the second paper, I examine the role of installation size and affect in forming attitudes towards solar energy. Results reveal that when comparing solar and wind energy installations of similar sizes, the stronger preference for solar energy decreases to a similar level as that of wind energy. Policymakers may thus encounter comparable challenges with large-scale solar to those associated with wind energy projects. The study also shows that affect is especially important in shaping peoples attitudes in the case of large-scale installations. In the third paper, I investigate the role of seismic risk of deep geothermal energy on affect, emotions, and attitudes towards shallow and deep geothermal projects. Results show that being informed about geothermal energy can positively impact peoples affect about the technology. They also show that a spillover effect of seismic risk awareness on perceptions about shallow geothermal projects is identifiable in terms of affect and emotions, but not through attitudes, highlighting the importance of measuring affective factors in addition to cognitive factors in energy acceptance research.ensoziale Anerkennung; Erneuerbare Energien; Affekt; Gefühl; EDIS-5098; social acceptanceemotionsaffectrenewablesdoctoral thesis