National survey shows developer transparency is key to perceived fairness in project planning and picking sites
More than 1.3 million homes across the United States are located within five miles of a large wind turbine. Yet, little is known about how wind turbine projects affect nearby homeowners or how these neighbors feel about them.
The University of Delaware’s Jeremy Firestone is part of an international team, led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), which is focused on gaining a greater perspective on this issue. The group conducted the first national survey on public perceptions of individuals living near land-based wind power projects.
The 2016 survey collected data from 1,705 randomly selected individuals within five miles of 600 wind power projects across the country. Results are based on phone, mail and internet responses to more than 50 questions.