Reconsidering barriers to wind power projects: community engagement, developer transparency and place
Abstract
In 2016, we undertook a nationally representative wind power perceptions survey of individuals living within 8 km of over 600 projects in the United States, generating 1705 telephone, web, and mail responses. We sought information on a variety of topics, including procedural fairness and its relationship to project attitude, the foci of the present analysis. Here, we present a series of descriptive statistics and regression results, emphasizing those residents who were aware of their local project prior to construction. Sample weighting is employed to account for stratification and non-response. We find that a developer being open and transparent, a community being able to influence the outcome, and having a say in the planning process are all statistically significant predictors of a process perceived as being ‘fair,’ with an open and transparent developer having the largest effect. We also find developer transparency and ability to influence outcomes to have statistically significant relationships to a more positive attitude, with those findings holding when aesthetics, landscape, and wind turbine sound considerations are controlled for. The results indicate that jurisdictions might consider developing procedures, which ensure citizens are consulted and heard, and benchmarks or best practices for developer interaction with communities and citizens.
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States). College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Portland State Univ., Portland, OR (United States). Survey Research Lab
- Martin Luther Univ. of Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Germany). Inst. of Psychology; Medical School Hamburg (MSH) Univ. of Applied Sciences and Medical Univ., Hamburg (Germany). Dept. of Psychology
- Martin Luther Univ. of Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Germany). Inst. of Psychology
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Wind Energy Technologies Office
- Contributing Org.:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Portland State Univ., OR (United States)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1454498
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 20; Journal Issue: 3; Related Information: © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.; Journal ID: ISSN 1523-908X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION; 29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY; 17 WIND ENERGY; Wind power; fair process; public attitudes; transparency; public perceptions
Citation Formats
Firestone, Jeremy, Hoen, Ben, Rand, Joseph, Elliott, Debi, Hubner, Gundula, and Pohl, Johannes. Reconsidering barriers to wind power projects: community engagement, developer transparency and place. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1080/1523908X.2017.1418656.
Firestone, Jeremy, Hoen, Ben, Rand, Joseph, Elliott, Debi, Hubner, Gundula, & Pohl, Johannes. Reconsidering barriers to wind power projects: community engagement, developer transparency and place. United States. https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2017.1418656
Firestone, Jeremy, Hoen, Ben, Rand, Joseph, Elliott, Debi, Hubner, Gundula, and Pohl, Johannes. Thu .
"Reconsidering barriers to wind power projects: community engagement, developer transparency and place". United States. https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2017.1418656. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1454498.
@article{osti_1454498,
title = {Reconsidering barriers to wind power projects: community engagement, developer transparency and place},
author = {Firestone, Jeremy and Hoen, Ben and Rand, Joseph and Elliott, Debi and Hubner, Gundula and Pohl, Johannes},
abstractNote = {In 2016, we undertook a nationally representative wind power perceptions survey of individuals living within 8 km of over 600 projects in the United States, generating 1705 telephone, web, and mail responses. We sought information on a variety of topics, including procedural fairness and its relationship to project attitude, the foci of the present analysis. Here, we present a series of descriptive statistics and regression results, emphasizing those residents who were aware of their local project prior to construction. Sample weighting is employed to account for stratification and non-response. We find that a developer being open and transparent, a community being able to influence the outcome, and having a say in the planning process are all statistically significant predictors of a process perceived as being ‘fair,’ with an open and transparent developer having the largest effect. We also find developer transparency and ability to influence outcomes to have statistically significant relationships to a more positive attitude, with those findings holding when aesthetics, landscape, and wind turbine sound considerations are controlled for. The results indicate that jurisdictions might consider developing procedures, which ensure citizens are consulted and heard, and benchmarks or best practices for developer interaction with communities and citizens.},
doi = {10.1080/1523908X.2017.1418656},
journal = {Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning},
number = 3,
volume = 20,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Dec 21 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Thu Dec 21 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}
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