Factors Affecting the Community Acceptance of Onshore Wind Farms: A Case Study of the Zhongying Wind Farm in Eastern China

Abstract

The conflict between wind energy expansion and local environmental protection has attracted attention from society and initiated a fierce discussion about the community acceptance of wind farms. There are various empirical studies on factors affecting the public acceptance of wind farms, but little concerning the correlation and significance of factors, especially in a close distance to the wind farms. This paper aims to identify, classify, and analyze the factors affecting community acceptance through literature review, questionnaire, variance analysis, and linear regression analysis. A total of 169 questionnaires was conducted in 17 villages around the Zhongying Wind Farm in Zhejiang Province, China. The factors are categorized into four groups: Location-related factors, demographic factors, environmental impact factors, and public participation factors. Through the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and linear regression analysis, the outcome shows the universal rule of community acceptance under the Chinese social background. Finally, recommendations for improving wind farm planning procedures are put forward.

Delayed and Approved: A Quantitative Study of Conflicts and the Environmental Impact Assessments of Energy Projects in Chile 2012–2017

“…The first is looking into the determinants of social receptivity to energy projects. In China, for example, on-shore windfarms receive less public acceptance when affected communities do not receive compensations [38]. In Chile, mining projects can avoid social confrontation if they are not perceived as a threat to water availability [22], in other words, if they are perceived as sustainable.…”

Cost Allocation in Integrated Community Energy Systems—Social Acceptance

“…Literature Review 1.2.1. Social Acceptance in Renewable Energy Projects A growing number of literature has addressed the issue of social acceptance of renewable energy technologies, especially wind energy [12][13][14]. These studies investigate the factors that affect social acceptance of wind energy projects by using empirical studies from various aspects: social perspective [15], economic and financial perspective [16], and ownership perspective [17].…”

“…Furthermore, it demands that all the stakeholders are accessible to all the relevant information. Procedural justice is essential to increase community acceptance [12]. Both procedural and distributive justice are addressed in the analysis of community acceptance of wind energy projects by [23].…”

Influence of Wind Turbines on Farmlands’ Value: Exploring the Behaviour of a Rural Community through the Decision Tree

“…In addition, the relationship between wind energy and rural areas leads to the controversial debate on the effects declared by rural communities after wind farms or single turbines are operative [15][16][17]. Indeed, these effects are very complex and go beyond the "not in my back yard" (NIMBY) tendency [18], since they arise from the combination of various factors after the installation of wind turbines, including the economic, social, and demographic features of these communities [19][20][21], their knowledge on wind energy, and the views in terms of both positive and negative consequences [22][23][24]. In fact, several studies investigated the effects of wind farms or single turbines in rural areas from different perspectives.…”

“…In fact, several studies investigated the effects of wind farms or single turbines in rural areas from different perspectives. These include effects on job increase [15,25]; income growth in terms of rent payments to farmland owners, farm business diversification, reduction of electricity costs, and local community benefit provisions [17,[26][27][28]; impacts on farmland occupation and use, and recovery of marginal areas [2,29,30]; visual impact on landscape [31][32][33] and alteration of agro-ecosystems [21]; effects on rural tourism [34][35][36]; social acceptance as a whole [23,[37][38][39]; impacts on human health [40][41][42]; and variation of property values with focus on houses and residential land [43][44][45][46].…”