The Belgian questionnaire: energy production

Our country Hello everyone. We are Suzanne, Enya and Kato and we’re from Belgium. [klikken] For those who don’t know where Belgium is: it’s a tiny country in between The Netherlands and France. In the east you’ll find Germany and Luxemburg and across the North Sea there is The United Kingdom. Our population is a bit divided: 60 % speak Flemish (a sort of Dutch but nicer), 30 % speak french (the Walloons) and not even 1 % speak German. [klikken] Our school is in Kapelle-op-den-Bos, which is in between the two major cities: Antwerp and Brussels.

Our school Our school is situated on the countryside. That is nice, because at the back you can see green sports fields. The school was founded in the 50’s by fathers who wanted to give farmer kids the oportunity to follow secundary education without going to a big city. That idea was a succes, because nowadays 1350 studens follow general secundary education in our school. They start in the 1st year, at 12, and finish in the 6th (18). We are now in the former last year, the 5th. This is also the year in which we can do an exchange. During 2 hours a week we work on the REACT project and on the exchanges.

Number of participants The questionnaire Country Number of participants Italy 26 Sweden 50 Spain Belgium 89 Poland Finland 55 Germany 53 The Netherlands 48 Total 421 With this questionnaire, we want to investigate the differences between countries on their idea of energy production. Which kind of energy is used most, which kind do people support most and which kind of energy do they know most of? Here you can see the amount of students that filled in the Belgian questionnaire. In total, we received 421 responses.

1 Why do you think people and companies invest in green energy? With the first question we intend to see what people think the reason is that people and companies invest in green energy. In most countries people think that the main reason to invest in green energy is that they can make money with it. Only Sweden, Finland and Spain have another idea. In Sweden and Finland they think that people and companies do it to have a good mood and in Spain because they really care for the planet.

2 Would you move to another place if you were living nearby: In all countries most people would move away from a nuclear plant. In Italy and Sweden even 100%. Italians would also move away from an electricity plant on oil and the Swedish even from a wind turbine. In Spain and Belgium we find the fewest people that would move away from a nuclear plant.

3 If you could choose, would you prefer dangerous nuclear power or a polluting oil energy plant? Northern countries (Sweden, Finland and The Netherlands) would prefer a nuclear plant. All the others would choose for an oil energy plant. We notice that people in every country prefer a certain type of plant, but they wouldn’t want to live nearby it. For example: Italians would prefer an oil plant, but they would never want to live next to it. The Swedish prefer a nuclear plant, but 100 % of them would move if there was one nearby.

4 What is, according to you, the most economical way to produce green energy? If one calculates the cost per kWatt, nuclear power is the cheapest. But it involves huges risks. Remember Tjernobyl and Fukoshima. There is no country where students know that nuclear power is the most economical way of producing energy. Italy, Spain, Belgium, Poland and Germany choose for solar energy. Sweden chooses water. Finland and The Netherlands prefer wind energy. Mark also that Italy is the sunny country (100 %), The Netherlands the windiest (71 %) and Sweden and Germany do it with water, because of a lack of Belgian beers, we guess. A nice quote from a Finish student: we have no wind or sun, so only water will do.

5 If green energy would be more expensive, would you choose for it anyway? All countries are prepared to pay more for green energy. In Italy even 100 %. Only in the Netherlands they think differently, which opens for us, Belgians, the possibility to make jokes about them. But we won’t, the Belgian teachers will do that tonight, in the pub. A wise German students said: I would certainly pay more for green energy, but only if I could afford it. Very logical, we think.

6 Which ones of the following new energy sources do you know? Hydrogen, nuclear fusion, geothermic energy and wave energy are well known in all participating countries. Only anti matter is not so known. Since 1930 scientist are doing research on it. If you can produce antimatter (which has the same caracterisics but an inverse charge) you could create a huge amount of energy. The only problem is, that it is difficult to preserve antimatter. Till now, they can hold it for 7 minutes, which is not enough to use it safely. But it has future

7 What kind of green energy do you use at home? Solar panels become more and more popular. That we can see on the results of Italy, Spain, Belgium, Poland, Finland and Germany. In southern countries that’s logical. But in countries like Belgium, Poland, Germany solar energy is only possible with money from the government. So the future of solar energy is insecure in the Northern part of Europe. Scientist calculated that if Belgium would be fully covered with solar panels, it would only supply in 20 % of our energy needs. The alternative is producing energy with water and wind. But as you can see, except for Spain, Finland and Germany, not many people use it.

Conclusion It’s all about the money Not in my back yard Sunny side up If we can afford it Home sweet home 1 It’s all about the money. Most people in Europe think that the reason to invest in green energy is mainly because it pays back. 2 People would move if they would live nearby an energy plant. It doesn’t matter which kind if plant they prefer, as long as it isn’t in their back yard. 3 Sun is the most popular kind of energy production. Not only, as we would presume, in the southern countries. But economicly spoken, in the Norhern countries, solar energy is expensive. Good alternatives are wind and water. 4 Most people would pay more for green energy, which is a good sign. 5 Also when you look at what kind of energy is produced at home, sun is the most popular. So, this was our presentation about energy production. We hope you enjoyed it, and we thank you a lot for your attention.