Financial participation as an opportunity to increase the overall acceptance of wind energy projects?

This research paper describes the effect of different financial participation models for wind energy projects on the social acceptance for the project. Based on the configuration of three different financial participation models, tested in a pre-study with several industry experts, we conducted an experimental survey with a representative sample of Swiss electricity customers (N=1202). Our results indicate that a local resource tax that benefits the entire community is favored over individual financial participation models, namely the opportunity for local citizens to participate through shares or bonds. For important key stakeholders such as riskaverse people or people with a politically centre progressive mindset, the local resource tax leads to a significant increase in acceptance. As findings on specific financial participation models for wind energy projects are rare, our research creates an important foundation for policy makers and project developers to facilitate social acceptance of wind energy projects on a local community level.