Breaking WIND: getting communities on board

There are plenty of oil companies well-funded, fairly dominant groups that stand in the way of wind capability development. To reach the 20% by 2030 wind potential goal, the US needs to install about 16,000MW a year — including 19,000 miles of new transmission lines. That means that a lot of towns will have to deal with wind turbines and transmission lines in their backyards.

On the one hand, landowners, communities, and agricultural companies have an opportunity to increase income through energy leases. On the other, lots of the stakeholders are worried about their land values, habitat fragmentation, and basically living within an vastly different landscape.

One of the outreach programs that the National Renewable Energy Laboratories is rolling out to try to sway opinion is the Wind for Schools Project. Putting wind turbines up at rural schools is a pretty well-conceived outreach program, and while the educational benefits of these are probably good — schools aren’t traditionally a place

where citizens are worried about the view.

Lots of communities are worried about being duped, noise pollution and — of course — visual pollution. Basically, when it comes to putting up a wind turbine on your property, or in your neighbor’s backyard — it may not seem like such a great notion. It’s all about perception. Basically, what that all boils down to is that: 20% by 2030 is going to require one of the biggest PR campaigns in history.

Wind developers are going to have to be extremely good at teaming up with key decision-makers in rural areas. whether you’re going into the wind sales business, you might want to invest in a cowboy hat and a pair of Wranglers, considering you’re going to need to get really involved with the community to help them see the possibilities clearly. considering the key fears — like noise, turbine failure, and lower land values — are already in focus.

[Source] Josh Loposer

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