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NIMBY, not, in siting community wind farms

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  • Boyle, Kevin J.
  • Boatwright, Jessica
  • Brahma, Sreeya
  • Xu, Weibin

Abstract

Public opinion polls show that many Americans support wind energy development while wind-farm projects often face local opposition. This dichotomy between general support for wind energy and local opposition is often attributed to the not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) phenomenon. In this study, we employ a discrete-choice experiment to investigate public preferences for different characteristics of a local wind farm. We investigate NIMBY by first controlling for characteristics that might cause local opposition, such as seeing or hearing a wind farm from home. We find people who favor wind energy do not display NIMBY, they favor wind energy and wind-farm development. We estimate compensation requirements for siting a wind farm within sight or sound of someone’s home; most people (79%) who are favorable toward wind energy (85% of respondents) would support the wind farm without compensation. Their concerns could be addressed through compensation payments or adjusting wind-farm placement and design considerations. Those who oppose wind energy (7% of respondents) may continue to oppose a wind-farm even in the face of compensation payments. Overall, our results do not support that NIMBY exists and applying this label to those who favor wind energy is not helpful to affirmative discussions to facilitate wind-farm permitting and development.

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  • Boyle, Kevin J. & Boatwright, Jessica & Brahma, Sreeya & Xu, Weibin, 2019. "NIMBY, not, in siting community wind farms," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 85-100.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:resene:v:57:y:2019:i:c:p:85-100
    DOI: 10.1016/j.reseneeco.2019.04.004
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