Attitudes of U.S. Wind Turbine Neighbors: Analysis of a Nationwide Survey

Authors

Ben Hoen, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Jeremy Firestone, University of Delaware
Joseph Rand, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Debi Elliot, Portland State UniversityFollow
Gundula Hübner, Martin-Luther-University
Johannes Pohl, Martin-Luther-University
Ryan Wiser, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
multiple additional authors

Published In

Energy Policy

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2019

Subjects

Wind power--Research--United States, Wind turbines -- Public opinion, Wind power plants -- Social aspects, Social acceptance, Renewable energy sources

Abstract

Experts predict continuing deployment of wind turbines in the United States, which will create more interactions between turbines and surrounding communities. Policymakers can benefit from analyses of existing wind projects that enable them to better understand likely effects on residents around proposed projects. Our analysis of a randomly drawn, representative national survey of 1705 existing U.S. wind project neighbors provides previously unavailable detail about factors influencing the attitudes of these neighbors toward their local wind projects. Overall, we find positive-leaning attitudes, which improve over time as individuals self-select into communities near existing wind projects. Hearing wind turbines leads to less-positive attitudes, although living very near to turbines does not, nor does seeing wind turbines. In fact, our findings suggest complex relationships among nearby residents’ attitudes, their perceptions about the particular fit of turbines within their landscape and community, and their perceptions of wind project impacts on property values. These findings—along with the positive correlation between perceived planning-process fairness and attitude—suggest areas of focus for wind project development that may influence social outcomes and acceptance of wind energy. The concluding discussion provides a number of policy and future research recommendations based on the research.

Description

Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Locate the Document

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2019.110981

DOI

10.1016/j.enpol.2019.110981

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/30626

Citation Details

Hoen, B., Firestone, J., Rand, J., Elliot, D., Hübner, G., Pohl, J., ... & Kaliski, K. (2019). Attitudes of US Wind Turbine Neighbors: Analysis of a Nationwide Survey. Energy Policy, 134, 110981.