Search

Renewable energy consumption habits and current attitudes in Hungary are alarming. As a governmental strategy includes it is necessary to increase the proportion of renewable sources from 7% to 20% by 2030. In the domestic energy market households serve as main consumers, but are not energy conscious and are between the most unwilling to make any changes regarding energy consumption habits. Results of our quantitative survey (N=2000) indicate that most Hungarians gather information through social channels and need personal experiences about new technologies such as renewable energy sources, which can result from conservations or observational learning (e.g. while consumption of online content). In this regard it is important to find potential social hubs (connectors) and mavens, who will foster information diffusion and it is evitable to focus on the next, young generation, who spend enormous time on the Internet, especially on social media sites. In our study we derived some social media activity clusters that can serve as potential segments to spread information about renewable energy sources in order to reach a tipping point in the future, and change current energy consumption attitudes or even behavior in Hungary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]