Planning globally, protesting locally: Patterns in community perceptions towards the installation of wind farms
Introduction
Deployment of wind energy in European Union increases rapidly, its cumulative capacity in 2009 being 93 GW [1]. Advancing towards a mature technology for electricity production, wind energy today constitutes an economically efficient alternative while contributing to an improved atmospheric environment [2]. In this context, EU targets of 20–20–20 for the further penetration of renewable energy sources (RES) reinforce and strengthen Greece's commitment to invest in renewables, wind farms being placed at the top of relevant investment strategies. In spite though of an increased deployment of wind energy in the last years – 1723 MW in 2012 – the projection for Greece's compliance with the 2020-targets foresees the further installation of approx. 8000 MW [3]. Investment plans for the implementation of additional 7850 MW of wind parks, submitted for approval to the Energy Regulatory Authority, testify the increased entrepreneurial interest. According to a recent IEA survey, the public acceptance of wind power in Greece can be characterized as high [4]. A national survey confirms the above conclusion [5]. On several occasions though, intense resistance by local communities delay and oft postpone the installation of new wind parks.
Various studies focus on the examination of attitudes towards wind energy, highlighting issues related to the puzzling divergence between ‘social’ and ‘individual’ gaps in wind energy acceptance [6]. An explanation of this apparent contradiction is often sought in the Not-In-My-Backyard (NIMBY) syndrome where an individual opposes the installation of wind turbines in his own community but favours it elsewhere. In essence, NIMBYism is a specific expression of a ‘tragedy’ where rational individuals pursuing their self-interest produce a socially irrational outcome in the ‘commons’ [7]. As such, NIMBYism has been criticized as not being capable to capture the complexity and multiplicity of social attitudes and preferences towards wind farms [8], [9], [10], [11], [12].
The vast majority of published studies focus on the analysis of public perceptions in the case of planned wind parks. Only few deal with issues of public acceptance in sites with existing wind farms. Now that wind farm installations in Europe have reached a critical mass, focussing on sites with wind farms installed near them allows the researcher to systematically investigate the potential differentiations in public perceptions between the pre-project period and the post-project period and analyse the role that experience plays in shaping the relatively advanced segments of it; a parameter technically impossible to analyse when focussing just on planned wind farms. The present paper contributes to this goal by focussing on the determinants of public acceptance at local and global levels seen through the lens of experience with wind energy installations.
The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 presents the theoretical background of our study. Section 3 describes the methodological framework in terms of the implemented methodology (Section 3.1), location of the survey (Section 3.2) and details about the participants and the procedure of data collection (Section 3.3). The main survey results are analysed in Section 4. Section 5 offers a discussion of the results from the perspective of new insights. Finally, in Section 6 conclusions are drawn.
Section snippets
Theoretical background
The theoretical background of the paper is based on NIMBY syndrome and its potential validity in areas with existing wind parks. As it is the case with the concept of ‘tragedy of the commons’, the critique on NIMBYism is multifaceted; its main arguments are summarized below.
Firstly, and most importantly, NIMBYism seems to imply a clear and immutable spatial effect: the closest the wind energy installation to one's ‘backyard’, the strongest her/his opposition. Empirical evidence on this is not
Methodological framework
Our motivation in the present paper is to analyse public perceptions with the identification of a robust statistical attitude model of community acceptance towards existing wind energy installations. Details regarding the proposed methodology and the design of the survey are presented in the following sections.
Results
The results of the survey are presented below starting with an analysis of institutional factors affecting acceptance of wind energy projects. We then discuss the role of experience in revising prior held perceptions on impacts and benefits before we analyse physical attributes and acceptance across spatial scales. Finally, we estimate statistical models depicting the preference profile of respondents across spatial scales.
Discussion
The present study aims at dissecting public attitudes towards wind energy in the region of Southern Evia, Greece. Our results are discussed below from three perspectives: alignment with previous findings on the main determinants of community acceptance, new insights on less studied aspects such as visibility and proximity issues and implications for policy and decision-making.
In general terms, our results confirm findings in previous research that people are generally in favour of wind energy
Conclusions
Greece, along with many other member-states, faces the challenge of reaching the 20–20–20 EU targets by boosting investments in renewable energy technologies. Our study explored community attitudes towards existing and proposed wind energy development in southern Evia, Greece. Research was undertaken with the use of a survey aiming at identifying the physical and environmental characteristics linked to both negative and positive perceptions of wind energy. The attitudes of a community living in
Acknowledgements
Part of the research was carried out within the EU FP7 collaborative project CoCoNet.
“Towards COast to COast NETworks of marine protected areas (from the shore to the high and deep sea), coupled with sea-based wind energy potential”.
Contract no: 287844 (http://www.coconet-fp7.eu).
The comments of an anonymous reviewer helped improve considerably the paper and are gratefully acknowledged. Remaining errors are the sole responsibility of the authors.
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