Public support for renewable energy reaches new record high

The newest wave of polling in the Public Attitudes Tracker, conducted in the autumn and published today by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, beats the previous record of 87% set a year ago.

When asked about individual technologies, 85% of people support offshore wind – another new record, beating the previous high of 84% set a year ago - and just 2% oppose it.

79% support onshore with only 4% opposing it. 84% support wave and tidal energy while just 1% oppose it. 74% of people say renewable energy provides economic benefits to the UK.    

The percentage of people in the UK who are concerned about climate change remains high at 83%, and the percentage of people who say they are “very concerned” has risen from 39% to 45%. The poll also shows the percentage of people aware of the concept of Net Zero remains high at 90%

RenewableUK’s Chief Executive Dan McGrail said: “Today’s polling shows unequivocally that the overwhelming majority of people want us to build more onshore and offshore wind farms to generate cheap power, increase our energy security and tackle climate change. We need to maximise the range of our homegrown clean power sources to reach net zero and energy independence as fast as possible, so innovative technologies like floating wind, tidal stream and green hydrogen have important roles to play too.

“This sky-high level of public support needs to be reflected fully in Government policy. This week Ministers have started publishing crucial details of the next auction for contracts to generate clean power and a consultation on future rounds beyond that. It’s vital that we secure as much new capacity as possible in each annual auction round at prices which are sustainable - and that we do so in a way which enables our supply chain to grow throughout the country. So the new parameters need to be set carefully to boost confidence among investors”.

The latest BEIS Public Attitudes Tracker is available here.