Getting to 30 GW by 2030: Visual preferences of coastal residents for offshore wind farms on the US East Coast

• Published in: Energy policy Vol. 173; p. 113366
• Main Authors: Cranmer, Alexana, Broughel, Anna Ebers, Ericson, Jonathan, Goldberg, Mike, Dharni, Kira
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-02-2023
• Subjects: Eastern US; Public acceptance; Social acceptance; Visual discrete choice; Wind energy; Visual discrete choice; Wind energy; Public acceptance; Eastern US; Social acceptance
• ISSN: 0301-4215; 1873-6777
• DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2022.113366

This study provides a baseline for longitudinal studies of public acceptance along the US East Coast, where no utility-scale offshore wind farms have been developed yet. Using a visual-only discrete choice design, we evaluate the preferences of US East Coast residents for offshore wind farms. As the offshore wind industry in the US moves forward and wind technology evolves, some developers have revised their project designs to use larger turbines. We examine how a wind farm's distance from the shore, project size, and turbine size factor into viewers' visual perception and willingness to accept potential projects. In addition, we test whether the presence of birds in the images impacts viewers' preferences for proposed projects. We find that distance from shore is overwhelmingly the most important factor for social acceptance, followed by project size, while turbine size had an insignificant effect. For participants who viewed images with birds, distance was the only significant factor. Our results suggest that getting to 30 GW by 2030 will require greater attention to public attitudes toward the visual impacts of proposed projects with a focus on the distance from shore.
•Visual-only choice experiment surveyed 262 residents of coastal counties in 12 states.•Project distance from shore was the most important factor for all participant groups.•Coastal residents are more sensitive to project distance than coastal visitors.•Project size was less important than distance, wind turbine size was not significant.•Birds in the images led to more negative utility for projects closer to the shore.