A European Comparative Study of Public Perception and Evidence-Based Information on Energy Production Alternatives

The accelerating global energy transition underscores the crucial role of societal perceptions and knowledge in the acceptance of sustainable energy technologies. This study assesses the accuracy of self-assessed knowledge of seven energy production alternatives—solar, wind, hydropower, gas, nuclear fission, and fusion—across four complex criteria (economy, environment, safety, and reliability) based on a large-scale European survey ( n = 19,144). Their assessments were contrasted with literature-based reference values through a multi-criteria evaluation approach. Results reveal that public knowledge is most accurate for long-established technologies such as hydropower, gas, and nuclear, while knowledge of renewable and emerging technologies (wind, solar, and fusion) is less accurate. The decomposition of the four complex criteria revealed that public evaluations are predominantly influenced by single indicators: fixed costs for the economic criterion, air pollution for the environmental dimension, accident risk for safety, and flexibility or availability factor for reliability. Average self-assessed knowledge levels were relatively homogeneous across Europe (2.6–3.1 on a five-point scale), yet the correlation between perceived and actual knowledge accuracy was weak. In just over half of the countries, lower knowledge levels corresponded to greater self-assessment errors, while in others, no clear trend emerged. These findings underscore the importance of improving societal understanding of renewable and novel energy sources and strengthening knowledge dissemination to support the transition toward sustainable energy systems.