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ID: 185705

Can't buy me acceptance? Financial benefits for wind energy projects in Germany / Knauf, Jakob

Knauf, Jakob	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

Local opposition to wind energy projects in Europe and North America is growing. This often causes project delays or even failure. Financial benefits may be one way to counteract a lack of community support. This analysis seeks to explain how discounted electricity, payments to the municipality, and payments for social purposes shift the acceptance of communities about a local wind energy project. A choice-based conjoint analysis among 811 German citizens showed that financial benefits increase citizens’ acceptance of a hypothetical wind energy project in the close vicinity of their homes. Proponents and the large group of citizens with rather weak preferences for local wind energy projects appreciate all tested benefits. In contrast, benefits cannot win over the small group of opponents. The study provides evidence that benefits do not ensure the perception of fair distributive justice, even for citizens with weak preferences. The findings inform current policies that introduce benefit schemes for wind energy projects to foster community acceptance and win over majority support for projects.

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ID: 191179

Crowdsourcing social acceptance: Why, when and how project developers offer citizens to co-invest in wind power / Knauf, Jakob

Knauf, Jakob	Journal Article
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Citizen co-investment in wind energy projects has recently received a lot of attention among scholars and policymakers as a way to finance renewable energy projects and increase community acceptance of these projects. Citizen co-investment refers to the process by which members of the local community can financially participate in renewable energy projects prior to or shortly after construction. While previous research has often been cross-sectional and focused on the preferences of citizen-investors, this paper focuses on the perspective of project developers and asks why, when and how they offer citizens the opportunity to co-invest in wind farms. The work is based on the analysis of fourteen in-depth interviews with a sample of experienced German wind energy developers. The analysis shows that the decision to offer co-investment is driven by citizen demand and local stakeholder preferences, rather than financial needs. We shed light on how experienced developers deal with key trade-offs in terms of the timing of their offering and the choice of capital structure. As a result, we offer a number of testable propositions for further research on the nuanced relationship between citizen co-investment and social acceptance and derive recommendations for policymakers.

Key Words

Equity ; Debt ; Wind Energy ; Community Acceptance ; Crowdfunding ; Co-Investment

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