Social acceptance “in my backyard” - What drives social acceptance of renewable energy projects?

Abstract

This paper aims to present a general overview of the social acceptance of wind energy developments in Europe and identify influential social acceptance factors. First, we show social acceptance levels for renewable energy (onshore wind) projects in selected European countries and how it varies across and within countries. In addition, we produce regional maps showing within country variations in social acceptance indicators. Second, using an econometric model, we study how different factors influence social acceptance levels. Our investigation assesses social acceptance of renewable energy developments using primary data from two comprehensive opinion surveys. The first opinion survey-conducted in September/October 2021-contains more than 16 000 observations from 8 European countries and allows us to assess how social acceptance is affected by the distance to the wind parks. The second opinion survey – conducted in June 2022 - contains more than 18 000 observations from 9 European countries and allows us to assess-through an econometric model how social acceptance is affected by a set of relevant influential factors, including perceptions, preferences towards energy suppliers, preferences for community benefits schemes, and demographic factors among others. The analysis of the information gathered for this investigation shows variations across European countries and within each of the countries covered by this study. The findings from this study might be helpful to take into consideration during the planning and development of renewable energy projects and improve targeting the work towards community engagement aiming to obtain the social license to build and operate renewable energy projects.