Citizens and Energy Transition: Understanding the Role of Perceived Barriers and Information Sources

Evangelia Karasmanaki (), Garyfallos Arabatzis and Georgios Tsantopoulos
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Evangelia Karasmanaki: Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources, Democritus University of Thrace, Pantazidou 193, 682 00 Orestiada, Greece
Garyfallos Arabatzis: Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources, Democritus University of Thrace, Pantazidou 193, 682 00 Orestiada, Greece
Georgios Tsantopoulos: Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources, Democritus University of Thrace, Pantazidou 193, 682 00 Orestiada, Greece

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 18, 1-20

Abstract: By investing in renewable energy sources (RES), citizens can participate actively in energy transition. The problem, however, is that citizen investment decisions are highly complex, while most strategies for capital mobilization rely on generic incentives or broad campaigns. To provide a new approach to mobilizing citizen capital, this study considers perceived barriers, as it is important to address aspects that disincline citizens from investing, and their preferred information sources, because attitudes are shaped and actions are empowered or disempowered through these channels. Drawing on a representative sample of Greek citizens, we used k-means clustering to segment citizens; the first cluster was inhibited to invest by loaning conditions, highlighting the need for banks to offer better terms for loans, while the second cluster was inhibited by a wide array of technical, economic, and systemic concerns requiring different stakeholders to address the barriers underlying these concerns. The third cluster was inhibited by barriers related to the technology of renewables and the availability of experts for installing and maintaining the systems, indicating the need to address such. Results also showed that several information sources can have a negative effect, suggesting that there should be policy intervention to enhance the accuracy of information.

Keywords: citizen investment; segmentation analysis; cluster analysis; questionnaire study; energy transition; renewable energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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