1 Public attitudes towards renewable energy technologies in Norway. The role of party preferences Henrik Karlstrøm 1 and Marianne Ryghaug 1 Corresponding author Henrik Karlstrøm, Centre for Energy and Society, Norwegian University of Science and Technology. 7491 NTNU, Trondheim, Norway. Telephone: +47 73591765 Email: henrik.karlstrom@ntnu.no Abstract Transition to a sustainable society requires large-scale conversion of the energy system to new, renewable, non-fossil sources of energy. This presupposes public support for new technologies, which means the public must deal with challenges in terms of placement, area requirements, ecological degradation and price developments. This paper discusses how citizens view renewable energy technologies. It analyses responses to representative surveys of the Norwegian population on the desirability of various energy technologies such as hydroelectric dams, onshore and offshore wind energy, bioenergy plants and, for contrast, gas plants with and without carbon capture and storage. Our main focus is on the influence of party political preference on views of renewable energy. We find that the sometimes lukewarm enthusiasm for renewable energy technologies cannot be fully explained by existing theories and that political party preference has a larger impact on energy technology attitudes than previously believed. 1 Centre for Energy and Society/Centre for Renewable Energy Studies, Department for Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.