Clean Energies for Ghana—An Empirical Study on the Level of Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy Development and Utilization
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Sustainable Energy and Social Acceptance
- Sociopolitical acceptance: this relates to accepting a particular technology by policymakers, the public, key stakeholders, and political actors. In this case, the politicians are required to enhance the market and community’s acceptance of RE technologies. Therefore, this makes sociopolitical acceptance the initial element needed to achieve general social acceptance
- Market acceptance: in this case, it looks at the diffusion of innovation; this explains consumers adoption of a particular product through a communication process among individual users and their environment. In this type of acceptance, the focus is on both the consumer and the investor.
- Community acceptance: this is in relation to specific acceptance of RE projects and their siting decisions by local stakeholders, principally local authorities, and residents. This is the stage whereby the issue about the NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) phenomenon emanates. In this case, some people are of the view that the difference between resistance to specific projects and general acceptance can be described by the fact that people support RE development provided it is not sited in their backyard. In contrast, others are also of the view that this is too simplistic relative to people’s actual motives.
3. Brief Overview of Ghana’s Energy Sector
4. Materials and Methods
4.1. Data and Sampling
4.2. Analytical Framework
4.3. Willingness to Accept and the Logit Regression Model
5. Results and Discussion
5.1. Descriptive Statistics
5.2. Econometrics Results and Its Implication for RE Development
5.2.1. Age
5.2.2. Electricity
5.2.3. Geography
5.2.4. Gender
5.2.5. Education
5.2.6. Employment
5.2.7. Income
5.2.8. Knowledgeability
5.3. The Implications for Ghana’s RE Sector
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Variables | Description | Mean | Standard Deviation |
---|---|---|---|
Age | Measured in years | 35.24 | 11.09 |
Gender | Dummy: 1 for male; 0 for female | 0.52 | 0.49 |
Education | Years of formal education | 17.99 | 2.92 |
Employment | Dummy: 1 for Yes; 0 for No | 0.76 | 0.43 |
Income | Amount in Ghana cedis | 1566.67 | 1378.48 |
Utility | Amount in Ghana cedis per month | 102.43 | 100.76 |
Electricity | Dummy: 1 for Yes; 0 for No | 0.9 | 0.3 |
knowledge | Dummy: 1 for Yes; 0 for No | 0.85 | 0.36 |
Residence | Dummy: 1 for Urban Ghana; 0 for Rural Ghana | 0.52 | 0.5 |
Geography | Dummy: 1 for Southern Ghana; 0 for Northern Ghana | 0.54 | 0.5 |
Strongly Agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Strongly Disagree | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Variables | Marg. Eff. | Std. Err. | Marg. Eff. | Std. Err. | Marg. Eff. | Std. Err. | Marg. Eff. | Std. Err. | Marg. Eff. | Std. Err. |
Age | −0.013 a | 0.002 | 0.007 a | 0.001 | 0.005 a | 0.001 | 0.002 a | 0.0004 | 0.0001 | 0.00004 |
Gender | 0.120 a | 0.028 | −0.060 a | 0.015 | −0.045 a | 0.011 | −0.015 a | 0.004 | −0.001 | 0.0004 |
Education | 0.093 a | 0.010 | −0.047 a | 0.007 | −0.034 a | 0.005 | −0.011 a | 0.002 | −0.0005 c | 0.00027 |
Employment | 0.284 a | 0.033 | −0.044 c | 0.024 | −0.168 a | 0.033 | −0.069 a | 0.017 | −0.003 | 0.002 |
Income | 0.00004 | 0.000 | 0.0001 | 0.000 | 0.0001 | 0.000 | 0.0004 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Utility | −0.001 | 0.000 | 0.0003 | 0.000 | 0.0002 | 0.000 | 0.0007 | 0.0001 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Electricity | −0.628 a | 0.038 | 0.483 a | 0.037 | 0.111 a | 0.011 | 0.033 a | 0.005 | 0.001 c | 0.001 |
knowledge | 0.020 a | 0.032 | −0.037 b | 0.018 | −0.123 a | 0.030 | −0.048 a | 0.014 | −0.002 | 0.001 |
Residence | 0.032 | 0.032 | −0.010 | 0.016 | −0.007 | 0.012 | −0.002 | 0.004 | 0.000 | 0.0002 |
Geography | −0.122 a | 0.030 | 0.063 a | 0.017 | 0.044 a | 0.011 | 0.014 a | 0.004 | 0.001 | 0.0004 |
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Agyekum, E.B.; Ali, E.B.; Kumar, N.M. Clean Energies for Ghana—An Empirical Study on the Level of Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy Development and Utilization. Sustainability 2021, 13, 3114. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063114
Agyekum EB, Ali EB, Kumar NM. Clean Energies for Ghana—An Empirical Study on the Level of Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy Development and Utilization. Sustainability. 2021; 13(6):3114. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063114
Chicago/Turabian StyleAgyekum, Ephraim Bonah, Ernest Baba Ali, and Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar. 2021. "Clean Energies for Ghana—An Empirical Study on the Level of Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy Development and Utilization" Sustainability 13, no. 6: 3114. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063114
APA StyleAgyekum, E. B., Ali, E. B., & Kumar, N. M. (2021). Clean Energies for Ghana—An Empirical Study on the Level of Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy Development and Utilization. Sustainability, 13(6), 3114. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063114