60% want the UK to keep investing in green energy

Some interesting figures arrived in the inbox this morning, YouGov have done some polling around people’s attitudes to green energy, and it seems that despite the best efforts of a small but vocal minority, people are still convinced that green energy is good for the UK.

The poll was originally commissioned for the Sunday Times, and shows 56% of those spoken to support the expansion of wind, and only 19% were opposed. Compare that to those who thought we should be using less fossil fuel based generation

It also indicated that people want more of their energy to come from renewable sources, and it’s not just YouGov either, a recent survey by EDF also found that suggested that 72% of the public are in favour of wind energy.

So far neither the Times or it’s Sunday counterpart have made any mention of the figures, which might suggest that they weren’t quite expecting the level of support to be that high. There are plenty of commentators in the media who would have you believe that there is a universal tide of opinion against wind energy, but the evidence is very much to the contrary.

What’s even more interesting is that 60% of those polled thought that the Government should be subsidising wind energy to encourage more use of wind. There have been no shortage of claims recently that investment in green energy is pushing up energy bills, despite only adding around 6% to the average family bill, as opposed to the cost of fossil fuels, which makes up around 50% of the average bill. It sounds to us like the public still see renewables as a cheap, sustainable and environmentally friendly way of adding to our energy mix. 

If you fancy checking out the YouGov poll, you can see the data here, and if you'd like to have a look over the EDF research it's available at here