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Bird Killer, Industrial Intruder or Clean Energy? Perceiving Risks to Ecosystem Services Due to an Offshore Wind Farm

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  • Klain, Sarah C.
  • Satterfield, Terre
  • Sinner, Jim
  • Ellis, Joanne I.
  • Chan, Kai M.A.

Abstract

Proposals to develop renewable energy technologies may threaten local values, which can generate opposition. Efforts to explain this opposition have focused on perceived negative aesthetic and environmental impact. Less attention has been paid to a fuller suite of the perceived risks and benefits associated with new energy technologies. This paper thus investigates impacts of an offshore wind farm pertaining to individual perceptions and judgments, and why risks to some ecosystem services might be cause for greater public concern than others. We find that this difference can be attributed to the affective and intuitive ways in which people perceive risk. Our mixed-methods design used interviews (n=27) that involved risk-benefit weighting tasks and an animated visualization to help people imagine an offshore wind farm in a familiar place. We found that affectively-loaded impacts (harm to charismatic wildlife and visual intrusion) were assigned greater weight than more easily quantifiable impacts (displacement of fishing, impact to tourism, cost of compliance with regulations). Interviewees identified increased regional energy self-sufficiency as the most valued potential benefit of an offshore wind farm. These results have implications for ecosystem service assessments generally and, more specifically, for our understanding of ‘affective’ dimensions of development proposals.

Suggested Citation

  • Klain, Sarah C. & Satterfield, Terre & Sinner, Jim & Ellis, Joanne I. & Chan, Kai M.A., 2018. "Bird Killer, Industrial Intruder or Clean Energy? Perceiving Risks to Ecosystem Services Due to an Offshore Wind Farm," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 111-129.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:143:y:2018:i:c:p:111-129
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.06.030
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Hélène, Buchholzer & Marjolaine, Frésard & Christelle, Le Grand & Le Floc'h, Pascal, 2022. "Vulnerability and spatial competition: The case of fisheries and offshore wind projects," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    2. John Dorrell & Keunjae Lee, 2020. "The Cost of Wind: Negative Economic Effects of Global Wind Energy Development," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-25, July.
    3. Cordoves-Sánchez, Minerva & Vallejos-Romero, Arturo, 2019. "Social construction of risk in non-conventional renewable energy: Risk perception as a function of ecosystem services in La Araucanía, Chile," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 261-270.
    4. Russell, Aaron & Bingaman, Samantha & Garcia, Hannah-Marie, 2021. "Threading a moving needle: The spatial dimensions characterizing US offshore wind policy drivers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    5. Xu, Wenxuan & Liu, Yongxue & Wu, Wei & Dong, Yanzhu & Lu, Wanyun & Liu, Yongchao & Zhao, Bingxue & Li, Huiting & Yang, Renfei, 2020. "Proliferation of offshore wind farms in the North Sea and surrounding waters revealed by satellite image time series," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    6. Wu, Yunna & Liu, Fangtong & Wu, Junhao & He, Jiaming & Xu, Minjia & Zhou, Jianli, 2022. "Barrier identification and analysis framework to the development of offshore wind-to-hydrogen projects," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PB).
    7. Ramos, Jorge, 2021. "Online Perception Of Artificial Reef Risk And Safety By Stakeholders (Including Residents And Tourists) Via The Analytic Hierarchy Process," Journal of Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, Cinturs - Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, University of Algarve, vol. 9(3), pages 189-204.

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