Wind energy opponents are not nimbies, report says

The report, ‘Beyond Nimbyism’, has been published today by academics at six universities including Manchester, Surrey, Lancaster, Strathclyde, Loughborough and Northumbria.

It includes survey findings showing only two per cent of people fit the nimby stereotype of being strongly in favour of renewable energy in general, yet strongly against a local proposal.

The survey of more than 3,000 people also found no evidence to support other popular stereotypes of green energy opponents – namely, that they tend to be recent incomers to an area, older or living closest to the site.

The report’s authors studied a range of renewable energy projects around the UK, including onshore and offshore wind, new tidal and wave technologies and biomass projects.

"Our results show that people generally support renewable energy, but that this support can be fragile, particularly for biomass and on-shore wind energy,” said lead researcher Dr Patrick Devine-Wright from The University of Manchester.

"It is clear that the Government and industry can do far more to keep the public onside and respond to the genuine reservations and concerns that some people have. They should avoid the politically expedient term of ‘nimby’,” he said.

Earlier this year Ed Miliband made the headlines when he suggested the Government’s message should be that it is “socially unacceptable to be against wind turbines in your area – like not wearing your seatbelt or driving past a zebra crossing."

Speaking about the on-going sit-in at the Vestas blade manufacturing plant on the Isle of Wight earlier this week, he made it clear that he still sees public opinion as a major obstacle to the widespread adoption of wind energy.

“We can’t be the centre for onshore wind manufacturing if all around the country people are saying ‘we don’t want onshore wind’,” he told the BBC.

But today’s report puts the onus back on the Government and the wind industry itself.

"Developers must do more to ensure local residents feel they are being listened to. Providing information is simply not enough,” said Dr Patrick Devine-Wright.

"And most importantly, Government needs to do much more to make sure that planning decision processes are open, fully informed and fair. At the moment local people often feel disenfranchised as their concerns are not properly listened to [...] under such conditions local resistance can easily escalate."

Certainly the Climate Change Secretary acknowledges that there is work to be done in this area.

Announcing a package of measures to support the wind industry this week, he said: "Alongside these proposals, we are reforming planning laws, finding new ways of working with local communities and are determined to persuade people that we need a significant increase in onshore wind as part of the UK's future energy mix.”