Residents' attitudes to proposed wind farms in the West Coast region of South Africa: A social perspective from the South

Abstract

The West Coast Region (WCR) of the Western Cape Province in South Africa is earmarked for 13 onshore wind farm projects totaling approximately 700 wind turbines. The developed world debate about the social acceptance of wind farm projects has impeded and illuminated a number of these developments. This paper is aimed at understanding people's reaction to proposed wind farm projects in the WCR – a region of a developing country – and to investigate whether the reasoning behind opposition to or acceptance of wind farm projects is similar to the discourse on the topic by scholars in the developed world. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect primary data by semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire survey. A spatial dimension was added through a map-based approach. Reactions by WCR residents to the wind farm projects were mainly positive, although some opposition was detected. International scholarship holds that place attachment serves as a reason for opposition to wind farm projects. Although most of the WCR residents had strong place attachments to their region, most of the respondents also supported the proposed wind farm projects.