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Open research questions in Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy

207 gap statements mined from Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 1,879 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • Existing studies have largely focused on farmers and experts, leaving lay citizens’ views underexplored.

    The social acceptance of agrivoltaics: Exploring the cognitive and affective outcomes of technological, contextual, and personal beliefs · 2026 · DOI

  • To fill this gap in knowledge, this study investigates the nuanced dynamics of social acceptance of “new” nuclear power plants in local communities surrounding “closed” nuclear power plants.

    In My Backyard or in My Country? Exploring the Social Acceptance of Controversial Infrastructure · 2025 · DOI

  • However, there is currently still a gap in the literature when it comes to studying how energy citizenship and energy communities relate to different geographical levels, including local, national, and supranational contexts, such as the European Union.

    From local to EU: understanding energy citizenship and the willingness to join energy communities across geographical levels · 2025 · DOI

  • The role of landownership in shaping the wind energy sector is not well understood. The mechanisms and conditions that constrain or enable community wind energy projects are not well understood. There is a need to understand how landed property influences the development modes of renewables.

    Making space for community energy: landed property as barrier and enabler of community wind projects · 2024 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on conducting comprehensive and longitudinal impact assessments of energy development projects on biodiversity and human livelihoods. Future research should explore the use of advanced modeling techniques, such as system dynamics or agent-based modeling, to simulate and predict the dynamic outcomes of various energy development scenarios.

    Exploring Trade Offs and Conflicts between Energy, Biodiversity and Human Livelihoods for Sustainable Development · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of a coherent framework for operationalizing structured, context-sensitive multi-stakeholder engagement in renewable energy planning. The need for a comprehensive review of existing literature on community engagement in rural energy projects.

    A multi-stakeholder driven energy solutions framework for rural and remote areas in developing countries. A scoping review · 2026 · DOI

  • Future studies should consider integrative designs that combine quantitative and qualitative Elasu et al. This dominance highlights the emphasis on measurable, empirical outcomes but suggests that socio-cultural and contextual factors influencing household energy behaviors may be underexplored.

    Household energy transition to clean cooking fuels: a systematic methodological review · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of understanding of consumer reaction to clean energy initiatives. Prior work has not examined the impact of demographic factors on resistance to clean energy.

    Consumer reaction to clean energy initiatives: communication strategies for power management providers · 2026 · DOI

  • This was a non-funded study and the resource limitations created a regional approach to sampling context specific respondents that were relevant to our research objectives. Our findings are exploratory but are transferable to a larger population. We suggest future research on the topic to reach a broader validation.

    Consumer reaction to clean energy initiatives: communication strategies for power management providers · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of consistent evidence on how resident demographics affect the perceived benefits of energy efficiency.

    Trust and Signaling: An Exploratory Study of Residential Attitudes Towards Energy Efficiency Advisors and Outdoor Media · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a scarcity of research on contextual factors influencing behavioural rebound effects in the context of solar photovoltaic systems. The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of how contextual factors shape rebound effects in low- to middle-income countries.

    Understanding and preventing behavioural rebound effects: a design tool for sustainable design across contexts · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research could explore the role of other factors, such as economic interests and political institutions, in shaping nuclear energy policy outcomes. Further study could examine the implications of the study's findings for other countries and regions.

    What explains the difference in nuclear energy policies? A comparison between France and Germany · 2026 · DOI

  • It highlights the need for a normative argument and a conceptualization of resilience in the context of renewable energy.

    Ethical tensions in renewable energy transitions: a philosophical examination of innovation cycles, intergenerational justice, and the moral imperative of responsible decommissioning · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of communication with local communities and less educated (or vulnerable) groups suggests a need for more equitable recognition of all stakeholders in the discourse on HT. This proves the production of epistemic injustice, which arises when certain groups are excluded from knowledge production and dissemination processes, resulting in a lack of understanding and engagement with critical issues.

    Who can speak for hydrogen? Media discourses on hydrogen technologies in Poland from an energy justice perspective · 2026 · DOI

  • A lack of integration with broader implications of photosynthesis in secondary school settings. Contemporary science education overlooks the significance of photosynthesis for life on Earth and human society.

    The Photosynthesis Literacy Framework – Updating Educational Perspectives on Photosynthesis Education · 2026 · DOI

  • The socio-material processes through which futures come into being are often only considered implicitly in futures studies. There is a need to examine how diverse wind energy futures are made through the assembling of urban wind energy visions, small-scale wind energy technologies, urban spaces, and practices of energy production and consumption at particular sites.

    Urban wind energy futures in the making: Energy plazas, hotspots, and enclaves · 2026 · DOI

  • A gap is identified in the literature regarding the use of public procurement for green industrial policy goals. Limited attention has been paid to how public procurement is used as a green industrial policy tool.

    The Politics of Procurement: Green Industrial Policy Through Non‐Price Criteria in European Offshore Wind Auctions · 2026 · DOI

  • The existence of heterogeneity with respect to local and/or individual characteristics has been highlighted in prior work. However, the sentiments of electoral backlash/positive reinforcement in connection with wind turbine development have not been fully investigated.

    Is local opposition taking the wind out of the energy transition? · 2026 · DOI

  • Prior research has neglected the social implications of heating transitions.

    Home heating transition in Finland, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom through the combined lens of energy democracy, energy citizenship and energy justice · 2026 · DOI

  • Balancing the needs of different stakeholders, including municipalities, energy companies, and real-estate developers. Overcoming the dominance of large-scale, centralised wind energy systems and promoting small-scale, decentralised alternatives.

    Urban wind energy futures in the making: Energy plazas, hotspots, and enclaves · 2026 · DOI

  • Undergraduate curricula often emphasize theoretical instruction while neglecting opportunities for hands-on application. Integrating machine learning into undergraduate education presents several challenges.

    Introducing Engineering Students to Machine Learning via Hands-on Wind Turbine Experiments · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies a research gap in understanding the complex factors influencing nuclear energy policy choices. The gap lies in explaining the differences in policy outcomes between countries with similar demographics and geography.

    What explains the difference in nuclear energy policies? A comparison between France and Germany · 2026 · DOI

  • Investigating the impact of wind turbine installation on electoral outcomes in other countries, - Analyzing the effect of different types of renewable energy sources on local acceptance, - Examining the relationship between wind turbine installation and other economic or social…

    Is local opposition taking the wind out of the energy transition? · 2026 · DOI

  • Our municipality-level analysis uses election vote shares as proxies for regional ideological trends, - Each empirical approach has distinct inferential limitations, - The linear panel models estimate within-municipality changes in clean technology adoption following changes in political support, but remain observational and cannot fully rule out unobserved time-varying…

    Far-right political support and clean technology adoption in Germany · 2026 · DOI

  • Examining individual-level beliefs, climate attitudes or alignment with far-right platforms, - Investigating the effects of other factors on clean technology adoption, - Analyzing the relationship between far-right voting and clean technology adoption in other…

    Far-right political support and clean technology adoption in Germany · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) Future research should focus on conducting comprehensive and longitudinal impact assessments of energy development projects on biodiversity and human livelihoods (“Exploring Trade Offs and Conflicts between Energy, Biodiversity and Human…”, 2026); (2) The lack of a coherent framework for operationalizing structured, context-sensitive multi-stakeholder engagement in renewable energy planning (“A multi-stakeholder driven energy solutions framework for rural and remote…”, 2026); (3) There is a lack of understanding of consumer reaction to clean energy initiatives (“Consumer reaction to clean energy initiatives: communication strategies for…”, 2026); (4) There is a lack of consistent evidence on how resident demographics affect the perceived benefits of energy efficiency (“Trust and Signaling: An Exploratory Study of Residential Attitudes Towards…”, 2026); (5) There is a scarcity of research on contextual factors influencing behavioural rebound effects in the context of solar photovoltaic systems (“Understanding and preventing behavioural rebound effects: a design tool for…”, 2026). 207 gap statements have been mined from Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 1,879 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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