Burdened by renewable energy? A multi-scalar analysis of distributional justice and wind energy in the United States

Abstract

The transition towards renewable energy is likely to be uneven across social and spatial dimensions. To ensure this transition is equitable and just, energy injustice has become the key framework for analyzing and interpreting the distribution of energy infrastructure. Wind energy development has experienced a significant gap between broad public support for increased development but persistent localized opposition to proposed projects, indicating that wind represents a locally unwanted land use. We present the theoretical argument that although the negative impacts of wind energy infrastructure are less extreme than those posed by other, more toxic, unwanted land uses, their status as a locally unwanted land use will produce similar distributional injustices as have been found throughout the environmental injustice literature.

Drivers and energy justice implications of renewable energy project siting in the United States

“…We return to these multiple perspectives on equity in project siting in the Discussion. Mueller and Brooks (2020) provide the study most closely resembling our own.…”

“…• Project hosting is mostly negative: Project development can compromise local land uses, restrict access to local resources, and otherwise burden host communities with the external costs of the clean energy transition (Levenda et al, 2021;Mueller & Brooks, 2020;Sovacool et al, 2019;Yenneti & Day, 2015). From this perspective, our results suggest that solar and wind project siting could impose these burdens on rural communities, and to a lesser extent on low-income communities.…”

Unattainable proximity: Solar power and peri-urbanity in central Burkina Faso

“…On the other hand, the 'costs' the population had to endure for the construction and the presence of the plant were not judged as particularly serious. In fact, unlike in other case studies of wind farms (Mueller and Brooks, 2020;Vallejos-Romero et al, 2020), hydrodams (Sayan, 2019;Vallejos-Romero et al, 2020;Zhao et al, 2020), geothermal (Kunze and Hertel, 2017) or thermal plants (Bedi, 2018), in the case of Zagtouli the element of conflict is mostly missing. No organised citizen protest developed in opposition to the plant's construction; no clash, either physical or legal, occurred between the locals and the firms responsible for the building, or the national authorities supporting the construction.…”

Gender vulnerabilities in low carbon energy transitions: a conceptual review

“…Wind power projects received little to no attention (mentioned only in two articles (Turkovska et al 2021)) in review literature. One possible explanation could be the absence of gender analysis in studies related to wind, though the literature is emerging on social impacts of the wind farms (Mueller and Brooks 2020).…”