Background
To combat climate change, sustainable energy projects are being developed and implemented. While many people worry about climate change and would like that more collective action is taken, there is still quite some opposition to such projects.
A well-known example are wind projects. Opposition to wind parks hamper the successful and effective implementation of the projects. An important question therefore is how can we make wind projects more acceptable. One key element may be fairness. When making wind parks more fair, they may be received with more acceptance.
Perceived fairness is often found to be an important predictor of sustainable energy technology acceptance, also for wind projects (Bal et al., 2023; Gross, 2007; Linzenich & Ziefle, 2018; Wolsink, 2007). In a study conducted by one of our Master students conducted in Germany (Lippers, 2024), it has been found that various justice considerations underly various fairness evaluations about wind parks. For example the perceived distribution of benefits and various distributive justice rules were positively related to perceived fairness and acceptability of the windpark overall. This suggests that a key to more acceptance of wind parks is to create more fair conditions such as a more equal distribution of benefits and a more fair decision making procedure.
In this master thesis research you will build further on the German study and will conduct further research on justice considerations, fairness evaluation and acceptance around wind parks in the Netherlands.
Research questions
1. What are reasons for people to find the wind park that they live near to unfair?
2. Which dimensions of unfairness can be distinguished?
3. How can we improve the development of energy projects such that they are considered fairer and therefore more acceptable?
Type of research
You will conduct a survey study, with open and closed questions.
Keywords
Fairness, energy transition, sustainability
Information
If you are interested in this topic, please contact Steven Watson via s.j.watson@utwente.nl.
Literature
Bal, M., Stok, M., Bombaerts, G., Huijts, N. M. A., Schneider, P., Spahn, A., & Buskens, V. (2023). A fairway to fairness: Toward a richer conceptualization of fairness perceptions for just energy transitions. Energy Research and Social Science, 103, 103213. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629623002736
Gross, C. (2007). Community perspectives of wind energy in Australia: the application of a justice and community fairness framework to increase social acceptance. Energy Policy, 35, 2727–2736.
Linzenich, A., & Ziefle, M. (2018). Uncovering the Impact of Trust and Perceived Fairness on the Acceptance of Wind Power Plants and Electricity Pylons. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems, 190–198. https://doi.org/10.5220/0006696001900198
Lippers, T. (2024). Powering the energy transition: Unravelling the influence of perceived fairness on wind park acceptance among residents. University of Twente.
Wolsink, M. (2007). Wind power implementation: the nature of public attitudes: equity and fairness instead of “backyard motives.” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 11(6), 1188–1207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2005.10.005