What makes local energy projects acceptable? Probing the connection between ownership structures and community acceptance

2022/09/26 by Jessica Hogan, Charles R. Warren, Michael Simpson +1 · 1 voice · 50 citations
Engineering · Environmental Science · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Business #Economic Justice #Economics #Energy (signal processing) #Energy and Environment Impacts #Engineering #Environmental economics #Environmental resource management #Finance #Law #Local community #Marketing #Microeconomics #Order (exchange) #Perception #Political science #Psychology #Public economics #Public relations #Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy #Social acceptance #Social psychology #Sustainability and Climate Change Governance #Wind power

paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2022.113257

published in Energy Policy 171, 113257 (Elsevier BV)

openalex publication_date 2022/09/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/03

Abstract

Community ownership of wind energy has been found to increase acceptance, but the reasons for this are poorly understood. Here, we compare different communities’ attitudes towards local onshore wind energy projects in order to gain a deeper understanding of the characteristics of ownership which are conducive to community acceptance. Using a postal survey in Scotland ( n = 318), we compared three communities with varying degrees of ownership regarding their (1) support for the local wind project; (2) perceptions of energy justice; (3) perceived impacts; and (4) ownership and benefit preferences. One-way ANOVAs and the Potential for Conflict Index 2 identified that residents in the two communities with a degree of ownership were more associated with greater acceptance, processes, and outcomes (i.e. more just and inclusive development processes and more fairly distributed benefits and impacts), than residents living near the privately-owned development. Additionally, we provide evidence that a co-operative can achieve similar acceptance and energy justice as a fully community-owned project. Overall, the results indicate that policymakers should take seriously the connection between the tenets of energy justice and ownership models in their policy and planning efforts.

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Discussions

• This figure by Hogan et al. (2022) shows that community ownership (in full or in part) of wind farms is correlated with a) higher levels of acceptance, and b) perceived greater energy justice processe [bsky, 38 points, 0 comments]

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