When controversies cascade: Analysing the dynamics of public engagement and conflict in the Netherlands and Switzerland through “controversy spillover”

Factors and dynamics of the social perception of geothermal energy: Case study of the Tolhuaca exploration project in Chile

“…These factors can be classified in three interrelated categories that encompass the activities that are necessary to physically carry out the project, the engagement activities that relate to all interactions between project developers and local stakeholders, and the contextual factors that relate to dimensions that are not part of the project but will nevertheless influence its development. Those results are fairly consistent with recent studies such as Chavot et al, 2018, andCuppen et al, 2020 that highlight that local actors' reactions largely depend on local collective norms or contextual factors.…”

“…The above example shows that some negative opinion of the project was influenced by the combination of factors: an undefined project to install the transmission lines needed to connect the expected production of 70 MW with the environmental impact during the construction phase, and the weather conditions in Winter that delayed project activities. It is through such discursive interrelations that the context of a project becomes shaped (Cuppen et al, 2020;Ejderyan et al, 2019).…”

“…Individual interests or preferences of local residents and other stakeholders play a role. However, the way a geothermal project will be perceived and how actors will react to it is also largely dependent on things as different as local collective norms, ongoing social conflicts locally, the political agenda, past experiences with other infrastructure projects, existing economic activities or media reporting (Cuppen et al, 2020). We speak of the social perception 1 of geothermal energy because it is always mediated by such collective processes.…”

Value Change in Energy Systems

“…One of the reasons why value change is important is because value change may lead to a mismatch between the values embodied in current energy systems and the values we consider currently important as society or for moral reasons. This mismatch often leads to huge controversies that in turn could lead to a failure of energy projects (Cuppen et al 2020). Addressing or even avoiding such mismatches first of all requires a better understanding of value change and probably also new methods for studying value change.…”

An online survey to explore the awareness and acceptance of geothermal energy among an educated segment of the population in five European and American countries

“…Hydraulic stimulation for geothermal energy has been compared by the public with techniques implemented in hydrocarbon exploitation and associated with fracking (Biello 2013;Sun et al 2017). This tendency can generate what is de ned a controversy spillover, particularly a technology spillover in this case, as observed in the case of Switzerland (Cuppen et al, 2020). Therefore, in several regions of France, there are people who are opposed to hydraulic stimulation for geothermal energy since they point out the risk caused by technology used to facilitate water circulation in the rocks (Meng and Ashby 2014;Chavot et al 2018).…”