A new survey conducted by Cavendish Consulting has found that four out of five people in Northern Ireland would support the development of new onshore and offshore wind, solar, and hydro energy projects in their local area.

The survey, conducted by Lucid Talk on behalf of Cavendish Consulting for its report 'Northern Ireland and the Future of Energy', involved 1,050 respondents across Northern Ireland. The results indicate strong public support for low-carbon energy sources, with 93% of respondents supporting new solar energy developments and 88% supporting new offshore wind projects.

With the Northern Ireland Executive prioritising net zero and energy security, the survey findings suggest a broad public consensus in favour of renewable energy. In fact, the four primary renewable energy categories received even stronger support in Northern Ireland compared to a similar survey conducted by Cavendish in Great Britain earlier this year.

However, the research also revealed that only 11% of those surveyed believe the NI Executive's net zero targets will be achieved, and 47% of people expressed concerns about the potential negative impact of net zero policies on their household finances.

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Paul McErlean, Managing Director of Cavendish Ireland, said: "The Department for the Economy has made achieving net zero by 2050 and growing the green economy one of its four key strategic priorities. This research shows there is huge public backing in Northern Ireland to deliver new renewable energy projects.

"However, at a time of high energy costs and squeezed household finances, it's also clear that a lot of people don't want the transition to net zero to come at a cost to them. If the sector is going to win public support, they'll need to present a strong and clear economic case and demonstrate the significant benefits that reaching net zero will deliver."

While the public may be sceptical about reaching net zero, Cavendish's research found that there are high levels of support for development of projects in each of the four main renewable energy categories which exceeded levels of public support recorded in GB.

There was overall support for onshore wind (81%), offshore wind (88%), tidal/hydro (88%) and solar in NI (93%), with two thirds of people saying they ‘strongly support' offshore wind, tidal and solar.

Overall support for hydrogen energy project development was also higher than in GB (64% vs 48%) although only 27% said they strongly support hydrogen, suggesting more education is needed by hydrogen providers.

Nuclear power was in the bottom three in terms of public support in all parts of Northern Ireland and is the only energy source where the opposition outweighed support (41% net support vs 47% net opposition).

You can read the full report here.