Planning to engage the community on renewables: insights from community engagement plans of the Australian wind industry

Abstract

ABSTRACT Wind farms in Australia have encountered a range of community responses, sometimes resulting in opposition. This has caused the wind energy industry to evaluate and amend their community engagement practices. Community Engagement Plans detail wind farm developers’ internal intentions’ for stakeholder communication and engagement. This research sought insights into these intentions and the success of the selected engagement approaches through an examination of 32 plans. The article presents trends in wind developer practice and understanding of community engagement and benefit sharing, through analysis of these strategic documents that are rarely shared externally. The findings reveal a strong intention by wind farm developers to respond to and meet, or exceed, community expectations. The plans were heavily influenced by recent guidance documents from the Australian renewable energy sector and government. Analysing the plans revealed an increasing use of a diversity of community engagement and benefit sharing practices, and a recognition of the value of engaging more meaningfully with local communities. These findings are relevant to wind and other renewable energy developers scoping new or expanded projects, as well as government organisations seeking to maximise the contribution of wind-generated energy.