Ukomm - Environmetal communiation / wind power NRW

Research project at a glance

After the change of government in NRW in 2011 the extension of wind energy became a vital political topic. Untill 2020, 15 percent of the electric consumption in NRW shall be based on wind power; currently it is only about four percent. With the latest law from July 2011 ("Windenergieerlass") and further counselling offers (EnergieAgentur.NRW, Netzwerk Windkraft) the government tries to support the expansion of wind power stations as well as planing projects with local communes.  Even though the energy revolution, renewable energy or wind power are supported in public, the construction of new power stations or "repowering" (replacing old stations by new and more efficient ones) also encounters resistance. Lacking acceptance may cause delays which will lead to higher costs. At the very beginning conversations have been hold with the EnergieAgentur.NRW and experts for wind power (Netzwerk Windkraft). They affirmed that research about the acceptance of wind power will be important for policy, the communes, but also for the citizens. EnergieAgentur.NRW offered their support for the pilot study by conveying this project to the deputy major of the selected commune. According to literature, acceptance is influenced by many factor. Its strength depends on the object and subject of accepteance as well as on the context. The goal of this pilot project is to establish a groundwork for acceptance research and to analyse communication as a measure for public acceptance. The reporting of the public media, which has found only little attention to this date, will now stand in focus. The way how media reported about the construction of new wind parks and the resulting influence on the acceptance of energy projects is the main goal.

Departments and Instituts

Department of Engineering and Communication Institute of Technology, Resource and Energy-efficient Engineering (TREE)

Period

01.09.2011 to 13.07.2015

Project manager at H-BRS

Project Description

After the change of government in NRW in 2011 the extension of wind energy became a vital political topic. Untill 2020, 15 percent of the electric consumption in NRW shall be based on wind power; currently it is only about four percent.

With the latest law from July 2011 ("Windenergieerlass") and further counselling offers (EnergieAgentur.NRW, Netzwerk Windkraft) the government tries to support the expansion of wind power stations as well as planing projects with local communes.  Even though the energy revolution, renewable energy or wind power are supported in public, the construction of new power stations or "repowering" (replacing old stations by new and more efficient ones) also encounters resistance. Lacking acceptance may cause delays which will lead to higher costs.

At the very beginning conversations have been hold with the EnergieAgentur.NRW and experts for wind power (Netzwerk Windkraft). They affirmed that research about the acceptance of wind power will be important for policy, the communes, but also for the citizens. EnergieAgentur.NRW offered their support for the pilot study by conveying this project to the deputy major of the selected commune.

According to literature, acceptance is influenced by many factor. Its strength depends on the object and subject of accepteance as well as on the context.

The goal of this pilot project is to establish a groundwork for acceptance research and to analyse communication as a measure for public acceptance. The reporting of the public media, which has found only little attention to this date, will now stand in focus. The way how media reported about the construction of new wind parks and the resulting influence on the acceptance of energy projects is the main goal.

Results

The survey of the citizen led to the following results:

In general, the acceptance for renewable energy is satisfying. This result goes in line with other surveys.

The local wind power project in contrast is declined by most respondents. This result is non-representative as the respondents were participents of an informative meeting that is predominantly critical concerning these projects. Their attitude has shifted a bit after the second meeting, but has not turned completely; still the feedback was mostly rejecting.

The respondents predominantly saw the negative aspects. In the first place they named visual influences on their environment, followed by noise pollution and decreasing life quality in general.

Only few citizens found advantages for the wind power project. The named that clean energy through wind power is renewable and more sustainable. Moreover we will become more independent on nuclear energy.

(The final report is available for download)

Research associates