Dynamic effects on the acceptance of hydrogen technologies - an international comparison

Social acceptance plays an important role for the future hydrogen economy and a broad market launch of hydrogen technologies. Neglecting the aspect of public acceptance and attitude may become a serious obstacle for the establishment of a mass market infrastructure. With a standardized questionnaire and a standardized procedure, personal interviews were conducted with at least 300 persons in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid and Reykjavik, in total with 3352 persons. Thus the dynamics of the public attitude toward hydrogen were analyzed, whereby the possibility of setbacks and accidents was taken into consideration. Whereas 68% of the interviewed persons would be supportive of the aforementioned technologies, an amount of 31% was determined to be volatile. An amount of 77% stated that they would use a hydrogen bus instead of a conventional one if they could choose, but an amount of 21% was indifferent. It will be shown how these amounts can affect the balance of acceptance and how stable the acceptance of hydrogen technologies can be considered in the evaluated six countries. (c) 2008 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.