Public perspective on renewable and other energy resources: Evidence from social media big data and sentiment analysis

• Published in: Energy strategy reviews Vol. 50; p. 101243
• Main Authors: Jeong, Dahye, Hwang, Syjung, Kim, Jisu, Yu, Hyerim, Park, Eunil
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2023; Elsevier
• Subjects: Public perspectives; Renewable resources; social media big data; Renewable resources; social media big data; Public perspectives
• ISSN: 2211-467X; 2211-467X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.esr.2023.101243

To address global climate change, many countries are reducing CO2 emissions and replacing conventional energy resources with alternative ones. When developing national energy plans, it is essential to investigate public perspectives on the relationship between renewable and other energy resources. This study employs sentiment and correlation analyses of social media data to assess public perspectives on the complex relationships between renewable and other energy resources. The results show that renewable energy and nuclear energy have a complementary relationship in terms of positive emotions, but a substitute relationship in terms of negative emotions. These findings can inform regional and national energy plans and policies for renewable and nuclear energy. Additionally, this study demonstrates that the proposed methodology can be used to assess public perspectives on various energy resources. •This paper presents an effective methodology for exploring public perspectives using a social media dataset.•The experiments investigate the relationship between renewable and non-renewable energy resources from the standpoint of public perspectives.•The results reveal a significant long-term complementary relationship between renewable and non-renewable energy resources.