‘High degree of acceptance': Wind farm commissioner received just 8 complaints last year

The bureaucrat controversially appointed by former prime minister Tony Abbott to investigate complaints about wind farms says public opposition has "dissipated" to just eight complaints about operating wind turbines last year.

The Capital Wind Farm near Bungendore. Complaints
over wind farms have plummeted over the past three years.

National Wind Farm Commissioner Andrew Dyer revealed the figures in Senate estimates on Monday, saying the fall in complaints followed efforts to dispel "misinformation" circulating in the community about wind farms.

Read the story from The Age by Nicole Hasham - “‘High degree of acceptance': Wind farm commissioner received just 8 complaints last year.”

Searching for ways to detect and solve public opposition

Policymakers worldwide are looking for ways to detect and solve public opposition.

They offer financial stakes and try to play down impacts – but studies repeatedly find no empirical evidence, say, that placing wind turbines further from buildings increases acceptance (PDF in German). As that study puts it, “It’s not enough to want to win over residents by providing them with information early on. Instead, people need to be able to participate early on – and have real input.”

Too often, policymakers and industry representatives assume that financial stakes are enough reward for the public. For instance, Denmark now requires various types of energy projects to offer 20 percent of the stakes to the public. But by the time those holdings are issued, the project is already well defined; citizens cannot shape the project’s design.

Read the One Step of the Grid story - “Why people come together in community energy projects.”