Generational effect and territorial distributive justice, the two main drivers for willingness to pay for renewable energies

The development of Renewable Energies (RE) must be stepped up in the coming years if we are to successfully realise the ambitious energy transition challenge set by many governments across the globe. However, the energy transition is far from obvious, especially with regard to the social acceptability of RE. In this context, we used a Discrete Choice Experiment combined with a Geographical Information System to assess the willingness of individuals to switch to a more virtuous energy mix based on three energy sources (wind, photovoltaic and biogas). Our results show a dominant generational effect, indicating that young people are more likely to accept renewable energy in their neighborhoods. Furthermore, residents in areas with renewable energy with negative externalities (wind turbines and anaerobic digestion units) tend to have a lower Willingness to Pay than residents in other areas, which is what we call the principle of territorial distributive justice. There is no reason to believe that the difficulties in finding new locations for RE installations could fade away. Therefore, an increased effort of public policies to plan the location of future RE facilities in a more equitable way and always a better explanation and co-construction of new RE projects are needed.