TY  - JOUR 
TI  - the acceptance and sustainability of renewable energy projects-a systems thinking perspective
PB  - sustainability
PY  - 2016
issn 2071-1050
AB  - Rapid population growth and increasing concern related to improving the living standards
in impoverished communities without damaging the natural environment have drawn attention
to the adoption of renewable energy systems (RES) around the world. Despite this global trend,
the implementation of these projects has not succeeded completely in rural poor communities due to
several factors, including social barriers faced at the time of their execution. These social barriers
lead to poor acceptance of the projects and their consequent abandonment. Acceptance is a social
construct that is influenced by several factors that need to be understood to achieve successful and
sustainable results in the future. In this paper, we develop a conceptual model, based on principles of
sustainability and systems thinking, to understand the interrelationships among the main factors
that have been reported in the literature as key to determining the sustainability and community
acceptance of RES projects. To do so, we review the existing literature on sustainability and social
acceptance of RES and then construct a causal-loop diagram of their driving factors. While doing
so, we also view the problem through the lens of the sustainable livelihoods framework, aiming to
maintain the perspective of rural communities and observing the impacts of RES on their contextual
reality. The resulting model helps to understand the multiple interactions that RES projects have with
rural communities as well as identify potential intervention points for future projects. We end the
paper with a discussion of the implications of the model and how can it be used to inform future
rural energy decision making.
KW  - renewable energy systems
KW  - sustainable livelihoods
KW  - community acceptance
KW  - causal-loop diagrams
KW  - Sistemas de energía
KW  - Energía renovable
KW  - Calidad de vida
KW  - Comunidades rurales
KW  - Estrategias del cambio
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10906/80931
ER  -