Abstract
The objectives of this work package have been to identify potential barriers and benefits regarding social acceptance in relation to the expected development of wave energy, and to present recommendations concerning this subject based on experience from the wave energy devices that are currently being deployed, and from other renewable energy technologies.
For this purpose, developers of wave energy and tidal schemes have been approached and information gathered. However, as the experience regarding social acceptance and wave energy is sparse (see Section E 1.4), experiences from wind energy have been included in this report, and recommendations and conclusions are primarily based on these. Given the low level of practical experience with wave power, methods developed for wind energy, described below, may be utilised as guidelines for securing fruitful involvement of the public in the project planning phase and thereby avoiding adverse public reactions.