In 2023 the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) partnered with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to expand on a 2020 survey undertaken by CSIRO that explored Australian attitudes to specific elements of the energy transition (with an emphasis on solar farms). For example, the perceptions of risks and benefits. This project has now expanded to further examine Australians’ acceptance (commonly referred to as ‘social licence’) for offshore windfarms, and associated transmission line development, which are key policy agendas for Australia’s move towards a renewable energy future.

The expanded survey explored:
• Social licence factors associated with clean energy infrastructure projects (e.g., perceived impacts, benefits, fairness and social acceptance)
• Exploring the energy narrative (e.g., public preferences for different plausible energy mix scenarios).
• Demographics (e.g., age, gender, and location).
• Trust (in government and private enterprise involved in the renewable energy transition).
• Infrastructure development-based application (expectations about benefits sharing etc.).

Behavioural science principles were applied to survey design and associated communications to increase readability, response rate, and minimise the likelihood of certain biases (response, sampling, social desirability, memory etc.).

The survey went live in July 2023 across Australia and closed in October 2023, collecting over 6,500 responses making it one of Australia’s largest surveys to measure attitudes towards the renewable energy transition.

Two research reports and a public-facing data visualisation tool will be produced in early 2024. The visualisation tool will allow CSIRO website visitors to explore attitudes to the renewable energy transition by key demographics and location (e.g., capital city and rest of state).

The survey will be run bi-annually (again in 2025) to allow for better sentiment tracking and to build a large data warehouse over time. This will be important as projects move from development to operational, and as new renewable energy technologies emerge.