Wind Turbine and Local Acceptance in Southern Thailand

Abstract

Wind power has been promoted as a clean energy. However, debate is ongoing with local residents who are not informed about what is occurring in their areas. Local acceptance for wind turbine installations was studied by means of a listening investigation with 729 participants in two districts (Hua Sai and Pak Phanang) in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, Southern Thailand. The aim of the research was to evaluate the public attitude and its acceptance for wind farms. The studies at Pak Phanang showed that most participants (68.5%) did not know about the project details. However, most participants who lived in Hua Sai (84.1%) knew about the project. According to the informants, 91.5% of the residents in Hua Sai agreed to implementation of the construction, while in Pak Phanang only 45.6% of the residents were in agreement. The construction phase and operation of the wind turbine can have an impact on the environment. Our study revealed that the participants who were concerned about noise pollution were 65.5% and 66.7% in Hua Sai and Pak Phanang, respectively. Future research should be employed to investigate the social impact in both negative and positive ways. The potential harm to the local community particularly on noise and visual impact needs to be identified. The main lesson learnt from this study was that local acceptance is important for project development, particularly in Thailand where capitalism and Thai culture play a key role for project implementation.