Both across the US and in Oklahoma, growing environmental and national security challenges have ratcheted up the pressure to pursue rapid, sustainable growth of clean and reliable domestic energy. More frequent weather extremes are taxing the US electrical grid, which is already being challenged by the growing demand for electricity. At the same time the US is facing deepening global conflicts that test our political influence and destabilize international energy supply chains.
Achieving energy security will require that the US grow clean and reliable domestic energy sources while reducing reliance on unstable foreign supplies. Growing those sources will require that we find sustainable ways to develop and build new energy infrastructure in pursuit of an “all of the above” energy portfolio (renewables, hydrogen, nuclear, hydrocarbon and others) while managing the wastes that are produced. A large fraction of IPPRA’s research program is focused on this problem.
There is a growing recognition that developing and deploying these new energy sources and infrastructure is not simply a technical challenge; it requires solutions that are socially and politically tenable. Public perceptions can boost or dampen prospects for energy options. For example, views of whether a type of energy is clean or polluting, safe or dangerous, finite or renewable, reliable or unreliable, and cheap or expensive can all affect public support for investing in and using that energy source. IPPRA provides insights into these public perceptions through survey research, asking US residents how they perceive the attributes of an array of energy sources, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: US Residents’ Perceptions of the Attributes of Alternative Sources of Energy
Source: IPPRA Fusion Survey, January 2023
The results in Figure 1 represent the average views from a representative nationwide sample of 2,016 adult survey respondents in January 2023. Not surprisingly, solar and wind energy are, on average, seen as cleaner and more renewable than other sources. They are also seen as relatively safe, but less reliable and more expensive. Hydropower is viewed similarly.
Fossil fuels fare less well. Natural gas is seen as somewhat reliable, but rated low on the clean and renewable scales. Coal is seen as the least clean, and is seen as unsafe by a majority of the survey respondents.
Nuclear energy, including advanced nuclear technologies are, on average, perceived to be cleaner than fossil fuels. However, they are viewed as less reliable and more expensive than natural gas and coal. This finding is consistent across several of IPPRA’s surveys over the past decade and raises a critical issue we face with transitioning to a clean and reliable electrical grid. Nuclear power currently provides about 47% of the US’ zero-emission electricity and has proven to be reliable in times of extreme weather events, including both extreme heat and cold. According to the US Energy Information Agency, in 2022 nuclear energy had the highest capacity factor of any other energy source (92.6% compared to 56.6% for natural gas, 40.2% for coal, 36.1% for wind, and 24.8% for solar). These data suggest that nuclear energy is at least 1.5 to 2 times more reliable than natural gas and coal plants, and roughly 2.5 to 3.5 times more reliable than wind and solar energy plants. However, public perceptions clearly do not match these statistics, and those perceptions have added to the roadblocks in the way of nuclear facility siting over the past few decades. Misperceptions of nuclear energy are likely to create additional challenges as efforts to construct advanced reactors ramp up.
In addition to measuring public views about existing energy sources, IPPRA routinely asks survey respondents about new technologies like fusion energy, which is still a decade or more away from being a viable source of domestic energy, but if fully commercialized could be a game-changer in the clean energy domain. Interestingly, on average, fusion energy is seen as cleaner, more renewable, and safer than either (current) nuclear energy or any of the fossil energy sources (gas, oil or coal). IPPRA’s 2023 survey results provide an early look at public views that will surely evolve as fusion technology and the narrative surrounding it shifts, but the results suggest that people in the US are currently optimistic about the prospects for fusion energy.
These results provide insights on public views about a variety of energy sources, and can help scientists and policymakers better understand where there are alignments or disconnects between technology, policy, and public views. Efforts towards grid modernization and decarbonization require an approach that accounts for technological, economical, and societal considerations to ensure a just and sustainable energy transition.
In collaborations with faculty, staff and students at OU and other universities, IPPRA is leading an array of research projects that contribute to understanding, fostering and implementing sustainable solutions for the energy challenges faced by current and future generations in Oklahoma and the US. Funding for this work comes from federal agencies, the National Science Foundation, and national laboratories. In keeping with IPPRA’s mission, this work integrates public policy scholarship with the physical and engineering sciences to increase human well-being, improve our social choice infrastructure, and to enhance resilience by addressing complex public policy problems and creating opportunities that span natural, technological, and social systems. Check out the IPPRA webpage for updates, and contact us for more information. We would love to hear from you!
