Awareness as a key factor building a positive attitude towards community energy systems at the early adoption stage

The urgency of climate change mitigation has placed energy transition at the centre of global policy agendas. Beyond replacing fossil fuels with renewable sources, a crucial pillar of energy transition is energy decentralisation, emphasising energy democracy and the active involvement of local communities. This paper examines the factors shaping positive public attitudes toward community energy in Czechia during its early development stage (September 2023). Drawing on a nationally representative survey (N = 1000), we employed multinomial logistic regression to assess the influence of socioeconomic and cognitive variables on support levels. The results demonstrate that cognitive factors, specifically awareness, are the primary drivers of positive attitudes. Awareness of the concept was the only significant predictor across all attitude levels; respondents familiar with community energy were over eleven times more likely to express a strongly positive attitude. Furthermore, beliefs in the concept's suitability for the national context and its environmental benefits significantly increased the odds of “rather positive” and “positive” declarations by 108% and 181%, respectively. While income proved insignificant, higher education and homeownership emerged as strong predictors, increasing the likelihood of positive attitudes. The findings suggest that successful adoption of new energy concepts depends less on financial status and primarily on awareness built through transparent communication. Policy efforts should, therefore, prioritise proactive, centralised information campaigns to build societal trust before the fine-tuning of technical support parameters. Additionally, outreach strategies must be designed to engage underrepresented groups and address potential socio-economic barriers to ensure the energy transition remains inclusive and participatory.