Willingness to accept a wind power plant: a survey study in the South of Italy

Abstract

Public opposition to wind power plants has led to the abandonment of numerous proposed projects. Focusing on a recently proposed project, we test some of the most relevant determinants of community acceptance found in the literature, as well as propose new ones. In 2022, shortly after the public announcement of a new off-shore wind farm installation in a tourist region of Southern Italy, we conducted an in-the-field survey. The survey targeted nearly 1000 individuals at the region's most prominent mass-gathering festival, which attracts both residents and tourists. Our questionnaire is unique in its inclusion of three temporal questions (past, present, future), allowing us to assess how interviewees perceive the seriousness of climate change and how this perception evolves over time. Our findings contradict the NIMBY hypothesis and support the importance of place attachment among both residents and tourists. Additionally, we identify a positive impact of environmental attitudes. Most notably, we highlight the role of climate change perception in the medium term: individuals who express greater concern about climate change in the future compared to the past and present are more likely to accept the project. These findings are validated by another survey that we conducted under similar conditions in 2023.