Abstract
Public concerns surrounding landscape conservation, noise pollution and impacts on bird populations are commonly incorporated into the planning phase of wind energy projects. However, public involvement tends to be highly localized and procedural, aimed at informing local stakeholders and gaining their acceptance for implementation. At the same time, other ways of engaging the public have emerged that move beyond invited stakeholder participation to facilitate the co-production of wind energy technologies and the landscapes in which they are placed. This paper systematically reviews the academic literature with the aim of identifying and characterizing these modes of co-production. A total of 230 papers published between 2009 and 2019 that report on public engagement with wind energy were included in our review. From this sample, we characterise public engagement into three modes of co-production: (1) local co-production, in spatially proximate wind energy projects; (2) collective co-production, performed through collaboration among different actors in the wind energy sector, joined ownership or consumption of wind energy; and (3) virtual co-production, mediated through information technology. These different modes of co-production cover a broad spectrum of ways in which local and non-local publics engage in decisions about where, when, how and by whom wind energy projects are designed, developed and managed over time. Combined, they can offer guidance for future research on how the wind energy sector can further support a transition to sustainable and inclusive energy systems.
Highlights
Offshore and onshore wind is an increasingly efficient and pricecompetitive renewable source of energy, contributing 16% of elec tricity produced globally by renewable sources of energy in 2016 [1]
We identify a cluster of papers documenting a range of alternative forms of local co-production in onshore wind energy projects and a cluster of literature devoted to public engagement with offshore wind energy
Gamel et al [123], find that digitally-networked publics prefer making investments within their own region or neighbourhood as opposed to investments in foreign wind energy markets. While this literature draws on the potential of virtual engagement for generating broader networks of support for wind energy projects, we found evidence for that opening up wind energy projects to dispersed publics can lead to conflicts
Summary
Offshore and onshore wind is an increasingly efficient and pricecompetitive renewable source of energy, contributing 16% of elec tricity produced globally by renewable sources of energy in 2016 [1]. Plans for upscaling wind energy infrastructure are increas ingly met with growing public opposition [3,4] Such resistance tends to be voiced by local communities, local and non-local interest groups and sparks debates at regional and national levels [5,6]. Emphasis has been given to increasing the involvement of local communities in issues related to the design and location of specific wind energy projects [11,18,19] and more generally to participation in creation of local [20] and regional [21] energy stra tegies and plans In most instances, these forms of public engagement fall under what is termed ‘invited stakeholder participation’ [22]. These, legislated procedures aimed at informing local stakeholders and gaining their acceptance for implementation of wind energy have so far pre dominated [23]
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