PLUS
The PLUS element comprises additional work packages that expand the scope and depth of existing activities, especially in the social sciences. It includes new partners and work that enhance and develop the CORE element.
Tyndall Centre Manchester (TCM) is part of the UK-SHEC Plus project ‘Cross technology innovation dynamics and scenarios', specifically sub-workpackage 3: ‘Stakeholder understanding and public perceptions, differences of scale and place’. TCM will investigate public responses to low carbon energy options, using Greater Manchester as a case study. The main investigative tools are a six month citizens’ panel, to which expert witnesses will be brought, and a regional energy model that will allow alternative scenarios to be considered.
There is fairly substantial literature on siting controversies relating to renewable and low carbon energy options, and an emerging literature of psychological and sociological accounts of these. There are also many survey-level reports on public opinion of specific low carbon energy options, both national and international. To date, however, there has been little work that brings theoretical literatures to bear on an in-depth exploration of region-specific energy options with the public. Nor has the evolution of public opinion in this context been documented before. The project will complement other hydrogen-focussed public opinion work conducted under UK-SHEC by setting hydrogen in the context of complementary and competing fuels and technologies, and will draw on expertise from across the Supergen consortia and beyond. The main deliverable will be a much deeper understanding of urban public opinion on energy options.
