The importance of ownership for wind power project acceptance: Evidence from Swedish municipalities

Sammanfattning: The transition into a renewable energy sector is becoming increasingly important in the face of climate change and aging nuclear power plants. While national policies on wind power development enjoy strong public support, individual projects are often met by local resistance. As this lack of acceptance from the local community poses a serious obstacle for wind power development, an understanding of its drivers may facilitate further deployment. This study investigates whether the ownership of a wind power project has any effect on the level of local acceptance by estimating a probit model using data from 4 886 Swedish wind power applications. The results conclusively indicate that community owned wind power projects have a significantly higher probability for receiving application approval from local authorities, and thus appear to enjoy higher levels of acceptance among local decision-makers.