Lessons learned from Ontario wind energy disputes

Thirty years of North American wind energy acceptance research: What have we learned?

“…That is to say, people are creating the problems, not technology" (Pasqualetti, 2011b, p. 202)  Suggestions that the motivation of wind energy acceptance research is to help meet federal or state level renewable energy goals (e.g., Mulvaney et al, 2013) Such positivist language has appeared regularly in the U.S. research to date (such as: Gipe, 1995;Klick & Smith, 2010;Olson-Hazboun et al, 2016;Pasqualetti, 2011b;Sovacool, 2009), but is less present in prominent Canadian research (such as: Baxter et al, 2013;Fast et al, 2016;Shaw et al, 2015;Walker et al, 2014bWalker et al, , 2014c, and rare in research rooted in humanistic geography (such as: Abbott, 2010;Phadke, 2013;Walker et al, 2014b), which tends to express more empathy toward affected communities.…”

“…Another form of compensation that has been examined is community investment in or ownership of wind facilities. Local ownership enables more equitable distribution of financial benefits as well as a higher degree of participation and influence in the development of a wind facility (Fast et al, 2016). This model has been shown to increase support in the European context, but little evidence exists in the North American context where community ownership remains rare (Bolinger, 2005;Ferguson-Martin & Hill, 2011;Sovacool & Ratan, 2012).…”

“…The annoyance experienced by people living near utility-scale wind facilities is correlated to more negative attitudes (Fast et al, 2016;Firestone et al, 2015). This annoyance, however, may be more strongly correlated to other characteristics rather than wind turbine sounds (McCunney et al, 2014).…”

“…A planning process perceived as "fair" can lead to greater toleration of the outcome, even if it does not fully satisfy all stakeholders (Firestone et al, 2012b), whereas processes perceived as "unfair" can result in conflict, damaged relationships, and divided communities (Fast et al, 2016). However, greater toleration is not necessarily synonymous with support or "successful coexistence" (Songsore & Buzzelli, 2014).…”

The impacts of wind technology advancement on future global energy

“…Studies focus on policy, technology, development and demonstration of wind energy system and their role on mitigation of environmental pollutants [5][6][7][8][9][10]. As an important renewable energy source, wind energy exists over wide areas and is seen as a way to limit greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the global warming threshold [11,12].…”