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Title: Support for solar energy: Examining sense of place and utility-scale development in California

Journal Article · · Energy Research and Social Science
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Univ. of Idaho, Moscow, ID (United States)
  2. Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States)
  3. Boise State Univ., Boise, ID (United States)
  4. Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

As solar costs have declined PV systems have experienced considerable growth since 2003, especially in China, Japan, Germany, and the U.S. Thus, a more nuanced understanding of a particular public's attitudes toward utility-scale solar development, as it arrives in a market and region, is warranted and will likely be instructive for other areas in the world where this type of development will occur in the near future. Using data collected from a 2013 telephone survey (N=594) from the six Southern Californian counties selected based on existing and proposed solar developments and available suitable land, we examine public attitudes toward solar energy and construction of large-scale solar facilities, testing whether attitudes toward such developments are the result of sense of place and attachment to place. Overall, we have mixed results. Place attachment and sense of place fail to produce significant effects except in terms of perceived positive benefits. That is, respondents interpret the change resulting from large-scale solar development in a positive way insofar as perceived positive economic impacts are positively related to support for nearby large-scale construction.

Research Organization:
Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
1193637
Report Number(s):
INL/JOU-15-35721; PII: S221462961400084X
Journal Information:
Energy Research and Social Science, Vol. 3, Issue C; ISSN 2214-6296
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (3)

Public perceptions of and responses to new energy technologies journal May 2019
Multi-objective Optimization of Solar Irradiance and Variance at Pertinent Inclination Angles journal May 2018
Improving Social Acceptance of Waste-to-Energy Incinerators in China: Role of Place Attachment, Trust, and Fairness journal March 2019

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Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
14 SOLAR ENERGY
public opinion
solar energy
renewable energy
place attachment
facility siting
public acceptance