Wind farms and payments to landowners: Opportunities for rural development for the case of Galicia

Governance in energy democracy for Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges and opportunities for partnerships at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec

“…Governance in energy democracy is particularly important for RE investments that directly affect communities (Velasco-Herrejon & Bauwens, 2020 ). Wind energy is a telling example of this in developed and emerging economies; the building and operation of wind farms requires the conversion of large areas of land (e.g., from agricultural to industrial), which is often owned and/or used by the community and significantly affects those living nearby (Copena & Simón, 2018 ; Manzo, 2012 ; Olson-Hazboun, Krannich, & Robertson, 2016 ). In emerging markets, wind farms are often built in poor, rural areas (Shen, 2020 ) that are inhabited by indigenous communities with a tradition of confronting corrupt governments and blocking MNEs’ investments in RE (Manzo, 2012 ).…”

Local Economic Impact of Wind Energy Development: Analysis of the Regulatory Framework, Taxation, and Income for Galician Municipalities

“…In the literature, there is a strong consensus on the potential of renewable energy as a driver for the sustainable development of territories [11,12,29,30], which is a fact that is also recognised by the European regulations [2]. Thus, Munday et al [31] have analysed the benefits that wind energy has for local communities in Scotland, while Copena and Simón [20] have shown how payments received by landowners may foster initiatives to revive local areas in Galicia. Delicado et al [21] have studied how, in the case of Portugal, the benefits and positive impacts of wind farms are perceived as indirect and quite modest.…”

“…In this context, wind energy emerges as a great opportunity to reverse negative trends and revitalise rural municipalities in the region. In this sense, the new local revenues associated with wind power development and the corresponding public policies are two key aspects of the analysis of potential opportunities for the development of rural territories [20]. The objective of this work is three-fold: (a) to identify, characterise, and analyse the dynamics of the main direct revenues derived from wind power activity and earned by rural municipalities between 1995-2017; (b) to make a quantitative estimation of the local revenues in the last year for which information was available (2017); and (c) to discuss the influence of the Galician and Spanish regulatory framework on the results.…”

Autonomía energética local y desarrollo rural sostenible. Análisis de la pre-disposición a participar en comunidades energéticas renovables

“…Con todo, a situación de moitas destas áreas rurais dista moito do ideal dun desenvolvemento rural sustentable. As prácticas agrícolas e gandeiras altamente contaminantes, o abandono de terras, a perda de masa forestal, os incendios e o envellecemento e a perda de poboación (Copena Rodríguez e Simón Fernández, 2018a, 2018bDammers e Keiner, 2006;López-Iglesias, Peón e Rodríguez-Álvarez, 2018; Martínez-Filgueira, Peón e López-Iglesias, 2017) mostran unha realidade preocupante. Frear ou contrarrestar a tendencia negativa do crecemento poboacional na maior parte das zonas rurais de Galicia, en particular das da Galicia interior (Pazo e Moragón, 2018), converteuse nun obxectivo de primeira orde para o Goberno autonómico.…”