The geography of renewable energy : a case study of University students within the Maltese context

Abstract

Renewable energy has recently become a recurrent topic in the local discourse about sustainable development. Mainly thanks to incentives which are fuelled by EU policy, which requires Malta to produce 10% of its energy needs from renewable sources by the year 2020. The issue has reached the mainstream and an unprecedented uptake of solar water heaters and photovoltaic systems has been registered locally. While at first the 10% figure appeared somewhat distant, the recent achievement of one of the milestones leading to the 10% quota has raised optimism. The study, which is built around the assumption that the economic factor and microgeographic space (roof ownership) are crucial to RE uptake, also assumes that a more informed society is more likely to uptake renewable energy technology. The study focuses on factors leading to the uptake of renewable energy sources on various scales. Some information from the literature review deals with the global and European context, while the study mainly concerns itself with the local context, and on university students as a particular case study. The first part which concerns itself with the Maltese renewable energy landscape, geographical differences are very apparent. In Malta a concentric pattern displays a much lower uptake in the dense urban inner-harbour areas, while the more peripheral regions display a greater uptake. The pattern repeats itself in Gozo, although Malta’s sister island generally displays a much higher uptake per capita when compared to Malta. Further analyses tried to identify what these factors might be, but the reasons do not appear to be straight forward. Some of the factors which appear to have a relationship with uptake of renewables are: age, level of education, the type of housing, disposable income, and the availability of roof space. The second part of the study: which focuses on University students’ attitudes towards renewable energy and environmental issues, highlighted a general environmentally friendly inclination by a vast majority of the respondents. Photovoltaics appear to be by far the most trusted of available renewable energy sources, while wind energy is looked at with much less confidence. Anthropogenic climate change is widely accepted amongst university students. What was very surprising in the results is that a majority of the students are unhappy with the level of information (regarding renewables) offered by their particular faculty. This, unfortunately, is especially the case in the Law and Education departments, sectors which are vital to the implementation of renewable energy policies. Another issue tackled was the financing of domestic renewable energy projects, with a slight minority indicating that they would be willing to take up soft loans to finance such projects.