ACCEPTANCE OR REJECTION? LOCAL YOUTH PERCEPTIONS ON RENEWABLE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT Boni Saputra (a), Hidayatul Fajri (a*), Artha Dini Akmal (a), Nila Wahyuni (b), Historis Soterman Halawa (a)
a) Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Social Science Universitas Negeri Padang, Jl Prof Dr. Hamka, Padang, 25132, Indonesia
*hidayatulfajri[at]fis.unp.ac.id
b) Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Social Science and Politics, Universitas Andalas, Limau Manis, Padang, 25175, Indonesia
Abstract
This article aims to determine the perception of local youth in renewable energy development policies in West Sumatra Province. Local youth are community groups who are educated and critical in conveying their aspirations and can network to form coalitions. In our previous research (Fajri et al., 2018- 2020), it was shown that local youth play an essential role in advocating the construction of power plants sourced from renewable energy in West Sumatra Province. We used quantitative descriptive methods and supported by survey methods to get local youth perceptions about geothermal energy development. Meanwhile, youth in this study are students from universities in West Sumatra Province. The results show that local youth still have limited knowledge about geothermal energy and tend to be biased in seeing the advantages and disadvantages of developing renewable energy. This condition can be caused by a lack of socialization and involvement of universities by the government, which impacts the lack of knowledge and awareness of local youth about the importance of renewable energy.
Keywords: Social Acceptance- Local Youth Perceptions- Renewable Energy Development
