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Wind Power : Basic Challenge Concerning Social Acceptance

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Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology

Definition of the Subject

Successful implementation of new technologies requires social acceptance. Historically, for the implementation of wind energy this was considered a relatively simple issue that could be addressed by applying effective communication strategies. Without much study, social acceptance of wind power was considered a matter of merely public acceptance and any problems with public acceptance were viewed as issues of education. Furthermore, public acceptance was primarily negatively defined, under the heading of “nontechnical factors” [1].

However, innovation must be considered a much broader concept, as there is nothing inevitable about how new technology is developed and implemented. The willingness to accept phenomena related to innovation of different parts of society, including all realms beyond “the public,” can be subdivided in two broad categories:

  • Acceptance of the creation of new socioeconomic conditions needed for implementation.

  • Acceptance of the...

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Abbreviations

Attitude:

Disposition to evaluate a psychological object – the attitude object –, representing a summary evaluation of this object captured in such attribute dimensions as good–bad, harmful–beneficial, pleasant–unpleasant, and likable–dislikable.

Attribute:

Character ascribed to an attitude object about which an actor may hold a belief (expectancy) and an evaluation (value).

Collaborative planning:

Planning with delegated responsibility to stakeholders who engage in interest-based negotiation about a plan or a project.

Community:

A body of people viewed collectively, e.g., the local community surrounding a wind farm location or a community holding a collective interest.

Discourse:

A shared way of apprehending the world; in this case, reflecting how the environment (including wind power implementation) is interpreted and given meaning.

Framing:

The way an issue (or an attribute) is defined and presented by actors – biased by their own perspective – in order to affect the perception of the issue by others: to encourage certain interpretations and to discourage others.

Innovation:

A change of ideas, that becomes manifest in products, processes, or organizations, that are applied successfully in practice.

Institutions:

Existing patterns of behavior, determined by existing societal rules “the rules of the game in a society.”

Landscape:

The part of the environment that is the human habitat as it is perceived and understood through the medium of our perceptions.

NIMBY:

Depreciative interpretation and characterization of opposition to a facility: an attitude of objection to the siting of a facility in the proximity (“backyard”), while by implication raising no such objections to similar developments elsewhere; acronym of “not-in-my-back-yard.”

Place identity:

Human binding to the physical environment at a certain place or area associated concepts: place attachment, sense of place.

Public acceptance:

The degree to which a phenomenon is taken by the general public, the degree to which the phenomenon is liked by individual citizens.

REFIT:

Renewable energy feed-in tariff, a class of financial procurement systems creating a priority market for renewable generated electricity by guaranteed access to the grid with a long-term fixed price per kilowatt-hour.

RPS:

Renewable Portfolio Standards, a class of financial procurement systems based on certificates issued for renewable generated electricity – “green certificates” – with a legal quote for renewables creating a market for trading certificates.

Smart grid:

Power grid consisting of a network of integrated microgrids that can monitor and heal itself.

Social acceptance:

The degree of which a phenomenon (e.g., wind power implementation) is taken by relevant social actors, based on the degree how the phenomenon is (dis-)liked by these actors.

Socio-technical system:

A system be made up of scientific and technological, as well as socioeconomic and organizational components.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Dr. Maarten Wolsink

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  1. Dr. Maarten Wolsink
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Correspondence to Maarten Wolsink .

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  1. RAMTECH LIMITED, Larkspur, CA, USA

    Robert A. Meyers

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Wolsink, M. (2012). Wind Power : Basic Challenge Concerning Social Acceptance . In: Meyers, R.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0851-3_88

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