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

Burdened by renewable energy? A multi-scalar analysis of distributional justice and wind energy in the United States

“…The negative impacts associated with wind energy remain contested. Opposition to proposed wind energy projects is multi-dimensional and stems from a number of concerns including annoyance and chronic stress due to noise [36], visual impacts caused by landscape change [36], perceived impacts to property values [37][38][39], wildlife impacts [36], and feelings of exclusion and powerlessness in the planning process [6,8,40]. While habitat and wildlife related impacts from wind turbines are smaller than impacts from other forms of energy such as coal and oil, a potentially more significant negative impact of wind turbine proximity is noise pollution [36,41].…”

Social Acceptance of Wind Energy in Urban Landscapes

“…The final data set included 2,376 respondents of which 903 (38 ) were female and 1,473 (62 ) were male. This is like the gender distribution in many other survey-based studies on social acceptance of sustainable energy; for example, suggested time and again, empirical evidence to prove this "proximity hypothesis" remains unconvincing (Harper et al, 2019;Hoen et al, 2019). Nonetheless, while remote off-shore installations may be more accepted than those nearby peoples' homes, due to limited visual and auditory impacts, the trade-off people face is higher financial requirements as a result of spatial distance and lack of grid connection (Devine-Wright & Wiersma, 2020; Hall et al, 2013).…”

“…According to Caporale and De Lucia (2015), women may be more sensitive to the aesthetic impact of wind farms to landscape; thus, the perceived impacts of wind farms on landscape warrant more research from the perspective of gender. On the other hand, Hoen et al (2019) did not find support for the gender argument, and Liebe et al (2017) suggest that the correlation between gender and wind energy acceptance varies by region. Nonetheless, the visual impacts of wind energy systems seem to be a common factor across regions and socio-demographic groups (de Araujo & de Freitas, 2008;Firestone et al, 2018;Hallan & Gonzalez, 2020).…”

“…Further, Azarova et al (2019) argue that social acceptance of renewable energy is not only about accepting a specific energy technology, or locally installing it, but also about the acceptance of administrative, technological, and social elements that come with it. Nevertheless, most studies (Ferreira et al 2019;Hoen et al, 2019), while local opposition usually tends to hinge upon the selection of a particular site for wind farms (Caporale et al, 2020). Even though this paradox is sometimes explained with the increasingly unpopular concept of NIMBY ("Not In My Backyard"), which refers to one's own self-interests, it is likely more related to "place-protective" attitudes, associated with "place identity" and the emotions that connect people with particular places (Jami & Walsh, 2017;Kim & Chung, 2019).…”

How Are Tourists Affected By Offshore Wind Turbines? A Case Study Of The First U.S. Offshore Wind Farm

“…There is evidence suggesting a positive impact on tourism and tourist activities from wind farms in general (Firestone et al, 2008;Frantál & Kunc, 2011;Frantál & Urbánková, 2017), and the Block Island wind farm in particular (Carr-Harris & Lang, 2019). Finally, since we consider only tourists in our sample (Block Island is home to barely 1000 full-time residents, and fewer still are proximate to the wind farm), our positive WTP results may be reflecting the general support towards renewable energy in the United States (Bates & Firestone, 2015;Farhar, 1994;Firestone, Bidwell, et al, 2018a;Hoen et al, 2019;Krohn & Damborg, 1999).…”