There is much nuance surrounding attitudes toward wind energy.  Survey research has found high overall support for increasing wind energy production, but tepid support or outright opposition in the communities where windfarms are proposed.  Rather than a purely NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) response, social science research has found that this local opposition is often temporary:  growing once a windfarm has been proposed, peaking during the construction phase, but then swiftly dropping following construction as residents become accustomed to having the turbines as part of their landscape.  Indeed, some of this research has found that residents in communities hosting turbines may later become some of the strongest wind proponents, eagerly welcoming additional wind development. 

This experience is not universal, however, with other windfarm communities subsequently changing course and halting future wind development.  Often these communities claim not that they dislike turbines so much as that their existing wind turbines make them net-exporters of electricity, or that they have had enough change to their landscape.  To what extent are attitudes toward wind energy affected not just by the proximity of wind turbines, but the density of wind turbines in a community?

In this paper, we compare public opinion data from a random sample of residents in Iowa (n=810)—which boasts the nation’s highest density of wind turbines—with a nation-wide sample (n=940) on perceptions of the impact of wind energy and overall support for new wind turbines.  Using geocoded wind turbine locations, we test the hypothesis that proximity to and density of wind turbines, while not necessarily impacting attitudes about wind energy overall, decreases receptivity to additional wind development in one’s own community. 

As wind energy becomes increasingly cost-competitive with other sources of energy across the U.S., the results of this study will provide additional nuance to our understanding of acceptance of the technology.