Public Attitudes on Wind Energy

With its vast potential, economic competitiveness, and rapid growth rate, wind
energy is poised to become a significant power source in
the 21st century. As it expands, so has media attention, and with it, publicity
about occasional opposition and not-in-my-backyard reactions
to proposed wind farms.

Could wind energy face a further backlash of public opinion as it grows? Does
public support for wind energy continue to run strong?

A review of public opinion surveys reveals strong backing for renewable energy
in general, and wind energy in particular. In addition, support for wind has
typically strengthened after a wind plant is installed and has been operating
for some time.

“The pattern of preferences for using energy efficiency to decrease
demand and [renewable energy sources] to supply energy has been consistent
in the poll
data for 18 years,” said a 1996 study conducted for the Renewable Energy
Policy Project (REPP) by Dr. Barbara Farhar
of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “This is one of the strongest
patterns identified in the entire data set on energy and
the environment.”

Strong Backing for Renewables

National and state polls conducted since the REPP study confirm
this finding:

• Polls for the Sustainable Energy Coalition indicated continued,
  clear public support for renewables. In a 1998 poll conducted by International
  Communications Research, the number of respondents picking renewables
  or efficiency as their highest research priority rose to fully 60 percent,
  compared with
  10 percent for natural gas,
  8 percent for fossil fuels, and 6 percent for nuclear power.
• In 1999, a national poll conducted by Research/Strategy/ Management Inc.
  found even higher levels of support, with 69
  percent of respondents giving highest priority to research on renewable
  energy and energy efficiency programs. In the same poll, 78 percent supported
  requiring utilities to generate 10
  percent of their power from renewables as part of electricity restructuring
  legislation, and more than 80 percent favored tax incentives to increase
  the use of renewable sources in the
  production of electricity.
• A USA Today-CNN national poll conducted in the wake of California’s energy
  woes found 91 percent of respondents backing “solar and wind power” as
  a solution to America’s energy problems, with only 6 percent opposed.
  A second national poll one month later by the Washington Post found a similarly
  overwhelming result: 90 percent supporting “develop more solar and wind
  power” with 8 percent opposed.

The same pattern appears in state-level or single-utility-territory surveys:

• In Texas, polls conducted in 1996-1998 showed such clear preference for
  renewable energy and energy efficiency over conventional alternatives that
  utilities
  and independent suppliers made investments in new renewable energy projects,
  and the Texas legislature included a minimum renewable energy requirement,
  or “renewables portfolio standard,” in the state’s electricity
  restructuring law. As a result, 1,000 megawatts of wind (enough to serve
  about 300,000 homes) have been built in Texas since 1999.
• The Nebraska Public Power District asked its customers in August 2003
  whether it should go forward with a $200 million wind project if that meant
  that utility
  rates would increase by up to 2.5 percent. A stunning 96 percent said
  yes, and 37 percent thought the wind project should be larger. A more traditional
  opinion poll of Colorado residents in March, likewise, found 82 percent
  supporting “wind
  and solar” even if rates would increase as a result.
• In November 2003, a Zogby poll conducted for the Wilderness Society found
  that 82 percent of Democrats, 80 percent of independents, and 70 percent
  of Republicans
  preferred investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy to
  drilling for more oil and gas in the US.

Widespread Support for Wind

As might be expected from the foregoing polls, and in spite of concerns
and allegations that occasionally surface when a wind project is first
proposed,
public support for wind energy is strong.

The bulk of wind-specific polling has taken place in European countries, and
in particular in the United Kingdom, where a countryside preservation group
has been organized to oppose wind development. The organization, called Country
Guardian, has been successful in stimulating enough controversy to delay or
even defeat a number of wind projects. Despite such opposition, opinion surveys
in areas where wind development has taken place show strong general public support,
both in the 1990s and today.

Of particular significance, public opinion in support of wind usually shifts
to become even more strongly in favor once the wind turbines are installed and
operating. For example, in surveys carried out by the British Broadcasting Co.
in three communities in Wales in the mid-1990s, opinion was measured before
and after construction. In Taff Ely, support for wind increased from 32 percent
to 74 percent; in Rhyd-y-Groes, from 36 percent to 61 percent; and in Llandinam,
from 65 percent to 76 percent. In another survey in Cornwall, the percentage
of respondents approving or strongly approving of wind power rose from 40 percent
before construction to an overwhelming 85 percent afterward. And in the Welsh
community of Cemmaes, surveys before and after operation both found 86 percent
support.

According to an August 2003 poll for the Scottish Executive by opinion
polling firm MORI Scotland, people living close to the 10 largest wind
farms in the
region strongly support wind: 82 percent of the respondents wanted an
increase in electricity generated from wind, and 54 percent supported
an increase
in the number of turbines at their local wind farm.

Two separate surveys have also looked at the effect of wind farms on
tourism in Scotland. A 2002 poll by MORI found that of those who had
actually seen
wind farms during their visit, 8 percent saw them as
a negative effect on their impression of their trip, while 43 percent
saw no effect and another 43 percent saw a positive effect on the impression
of their
visit. The poll also found that over 90 percent of visitors would return
to Scotland for a holiday whether or not there
were wind farms in the area. Eight out of 10 said they would go to a
wind farm visitor center during their stay. A second survey by the VisitScotland
tourism
agency found that the attitude of those who had actually experienced
wind
farms tended to be more positive than those who had not, and that 63
percent of respondents
said it would make
no difference to their decision to vacation in Scotland if the number
of wind farms increased.

In Germany, the largest wind energy market in the world with over 12,000
megawatts of wind power installed at the end of 2002, and where some
groups have opposed
further development of wind, a study undertaken that same year by the
EMNID institute at Bielefeld University found that 66 percent of Germans
favored
further construction of wind farms, and 88 percent supported more wind
energy development as long as certain planning criteria were met (regarding
minimum
wind speeds, spacing of wind turbines, and standards in residential and
nature conservation areas).

In Denmark, a country where wind supplies 20 percent of national electricity
demand, a survey conducted in 2001 for the daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten
confirmed public support for wind energy development. In answer to the
question, “Should
Denmark continue to build wind turbines to increase wind power’s share
of electricity production?”
some 68 percent answered yes, 18 percent found the current level satisfactory,
7 percent believed there were already too many, and 7 percent were undecided.
The 2001 findings confirmed the widespread support already found in earlier
surveys, in 1996 and 1994, on wind power in Denmark.

Studies from Spain, where there is intensive wind farm development, show
strong backing of wind power. They also show acceptance of wind energy
growth increasing
as wind farms are built. A 2001 survey showed 85 percent in favor of
implementation of wind power in the province of Navarra and 1 percent
against. Navarra
in 2002 was getting 20 percent of its electricity from the wind. Four
studies surveying the Catalonian province of Tarragona – in November 2001; May
2002; December 2002; and May 2003 – for the Spanish Renewable Energy
Association showed that four out of five Catalonians favor wind energy, with
the strongest support coming from people residing near a wind farm. In Albacete,
an October 2002 study conducted for wind energy developer Energias Eolicas
Europeas found that 79 percent consider wind energy to be a benefit, and 1
percent a step backward; 69 percent answered that wind was the best source
of power production, compared to 17 percent citing hydropower, 2 percent for
fossil fuels, and 1 percent for nuclear.

The American View

In the US, polling about wind energy has been scarce. Nonetheless, wind-specific
public opinion surveys from Vermont, Massachusetts,
and Texas and Nebraska (mentioned above), also found strong
positive attitudes.

Vermonters would welcome more turbines, according to a 2002 statewide
poll: 70 percent of Vermonters support wind energy and would like to
see more
turbines in Vermont. The poll was conducted
by ORC Macro, an international market research firm, for NRG Systems,
a leading manufacturer of wind assessment equipment based in Hinesburg,
Vt.

When asked which single energy source they would like to see more of
in Vermont’s
future, respondents cited wind energy most often (30 percent), regardless of
political affiliation, educational background, age, income, or gender. Wind
and solar energy together received more than half of the responses (55 percent),
and renewable energy sources as a whole (wind, solar, hydro, and biomass) were
favored by 71 percent of the respondents. Natural gas was mentioned by 11 percent
of the respondents. Nuclear and oil were selected by just 4 percent and 3 percent,
respectively. Coal had no support.

What’s more, tourists visiting Vermont seem unfazed by wind energy, according
to a local survey. The survey found that 95 percent of visitors to Vermont’s
Northeast Kingdom (four rural counties in the state’s northeast
corner) would not be deterred from further visits by the existence of
a proposed four-turbine
wind farm. Of visitors who ski,
92 percent said they would ski in the same region if the wind turbines
were located on the nearby ridgeline. The survey, commissioned by the
Institute for Integrated Rural Tourism for East Haven Wind Farm, which
is proposing
a project on East Mountain in the town of East Haven, asked questions
of 102
visitors at the Waterford and Lyndon information centers off Interstate
89
on five separate days.

An earlier Vermont survey was mailed in 1996 to a random sample of residents
in the town of Searsburg, where a 6 megawatt wind farm was planned (and
has since been built). Sixty-three percent of those receiving the survey
questionnaire
completed it, a very high percentage. Of those responding, 89 percent
said they would like to see increased use of wind energy, compared with
79 percent
for hydro, 53 percent
for municipal waste, 47 percent for gas, 25 percent for nuclear, 22 percent
for wood, 6 percent for coal, and 5 percent for oil. As with the surveys
in Britain, the Vermont sample found little objection to wind development
in Searsburg
itself. Residents were asked: 1) if they supported the Searsburg project;
2) if they would support it if it were
in another community; and 3) If they would support it if there were no
better place in Vermont where it could be built. Results to all three
options varied
only slightly, from 73 percent to 76 percent in favor.

In nearby Massachusetts, the proposal for a large offshore wind
farm in Nantucket has triggered well-funded and vocal opposition,
which has been widely reported in the media. At least one poll has
been undertaken so far, commissioned in 2003 by Cape Wind, the developer
proposing the wind farm, and carried out by Opinion Dynamics Corporation.
Among the residents
of Cape Cod and the islands surrounding the proposed wind farm location,
42 percent
of the respondents favored meeting future energy needs with wind, compared
to 7 percent for nuclear, 7 percent for oil, 6 percent for
natural gas, 7 percent for “other,” and 3 percent for coal. Statewide,
the figures were 47 percent for wind, 25 percent for natural gas, 6 percent
for oil, 5 percent for nuclear, and 3 percent for coal. Responding to
a question about the Cape Wind project in particular, 24 percent of Cape
and island
residents “strongly
favored” and 31 percent “somewhat favored” the proposal (55
percent approval), while 16 percent opposed and 19 percent strongly opposed
the proposal (35 percent), the rest being undecided. The poll was carried out
before well-known former news anchor Walter Cronkite announced that he was
withdrawing his public opposition to the wind farm proposal.

Conclusion

Polls and surveys suggest that wind and other renewable energy sources
enjoy strong popularity with the public, and that acceptance
of wind grows with familiarity. As the United States grapples with
growing power consumption, dwindling domestic natural gas supplies,
vulnerability
to terrorist attacks, and concerns about impacts on global climate
change from
fossil fuel combustion, among other energy challenges, decision makers
may want to keep in mind the preferability of renewable energy sources
and the
long, continuing record of public support for them.