Public opposition to wind power projects

This report documents the findings of the survey conducted within the context of BIOWIND Activity 1.1 (A1.1), titled “Joint elaboration on the environmental and socioeconomic drivers of public opposition to wind power project”. Project partners assessed the impact different factors of social opposition have on wind energy projects and identified the main stakeholder groups to oppose wind energy developments in their region. Partners also indicated the policy tools and/or actions which are effective in mitigating social opposition to and enhancing public acceptance of local wind energy projects. Two optional questionnaires aimed to capture the views of stakeholder groups and the public respectively regarding factors that influence their attitude towards local wind energy projects, and also the policy measures to alleviate their concerns about wind energy developments.

The report presents and analyses the results of each of the three questionnaires and elaborates on challenges for the uptake of wind power at both project and country level. The report is structured as follows:

- Chapter A introduces the topic of social acceptance of wind energy projects, followed by an overview of the BIOWIND project and Activity 1.1.

- Chapter B summarises the survey and the methodology used for data collection, including the method used for the identification and evaluation of the criticality of drivers of social opposition to wind energy development

- Chapter C initially presents and discusses the survey results. The overview of results is presented in three subsections: a) Partners’ input, b) Stakeholders’ input, and c) Public’s input. Then the discussion of results focuses on the key challenges for the uptake of wind power as reflected in public opinion, the common issues to be jointly tackled during the project, and specificities that need to be addressed by each partner.