Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The Lithuanian government wants to amend existing EU support scheme, which should promote renewable energy within the country. The Lithuanian Wind Power Association is, however, against the amendment procedure on the pretense that it hinders the development of renewable energy and this thesis work is an investigation on the communication process of the Lithuanian Wind Power Association and its relationship with different actors on the amendment of current support scheme. This paper presents activities, relations, strategies and the role of the Lithuanian Wind Power Association and brings significance of environmental communication at forefront on this phenomenon. This issue is investigated on the basis of findings from collected data along with the analysis of theoretical concepts. However, it must be noted that qualitative data collection of this study is mostly restricted to Lithuanian Wind Power Association’s impression and interpretation of the problem and process. During the replacement of current support scheme, the Lithuanian Wind Power Association has been mostly engaging with the government. Although the government does not take any suggestions into consideration from associations, both sides do not describe the situation as a conflict. The findings of this thesis also demonstrate that strategies and activities are not efficient enough and much work needs to be done on this matter. Based on the conducted small-scaled survey, even though people are aware of renewable energy sources, they are still oblivious of the EU support schemes and amendment issue at the parliament. Consequently, activities in order to raise awareness of public and effect the decision made by the government need to be overhauled. Building on findings and data gathering, employees of the Lithuanian Wind Power Association are not satisfied regarding the content of probable support mechanism, and to top it all off, there are some shortcomings even on the current support scheme, which does not correspond with the principles of sustainability.