Implementation of renewable energy in Scottish rural area: A social study

Nowadays, renewable energy is considered one of the valuable sources of energy in the energy sector. It is contributing major role in fulfilling the increasing level of global energy crisis. Although most of study of renewable energy is done through its technological development and a few are done in its acceptance level socially. In such consequences, this research considers the social acceptability of renewable energy in terms of economical, environmental and cultural perspectives. As a test bed, Scottish rural areas were considered for this social study, where the areas are regarded as lacking of continuous energy supply due to weak grid and socio-economic growth. This research investigates the intimate and sensitive nature of the social issues in rural Scotland that are important in the communities when decisions are made on renewable energy supply and demand. The social interactions are investigated by means of both interviewing the local residents and distributed questionnaires among them. The responses from the interviews and the questions are analyzed according to the predefined criterion of renewable energy such as willingness to accept, changes of life style, income and pay, and education and employment.