Rethinking the social acceptance of wind energy projects in the Netherlands
together with A.F. Kirkels and F. Alkemade
A lack of social acceptance is maybe the biggest barrier for the diffusion of onshore wind energy, especially in densely-populated countries like the Netherlands. Science has studied (the lack of) social acceptance extensively, but has failed to put this theory into workable practices for local governments or project developers.
In this paper, based on my master thesis at the Eindhoven University of Technology, we tried to address this issue. To do so, we first developed a theoretical framework showing how social acceptance emerges from a complex interplay between the impacts of the turbines, the process through which they come about, and the local context. This is illustrated in the diagram below.

An important implication of this acceptance framework is that it shows that the drivers of the social acceptance of wind energy is not a simple checklist. If you take care of all the components in the impact dimension perfectly, but you forget to consider the local context, or to maintain a trustworthy and just development process, it is unlikely that the project will be accepted.
Using this framework as our theoretical foundation, we used a known methodology (GIS-MCDA) to estimate the potential of wind energy in the Netherlands by discerning ‘socially acceptable locations.’ These locations are based on the suitability of places where wind turbines have already been built.
In the image below, a darker the shade of blue implies a more suitable the location. When all these locations are exploited, we found that theoretically, 26.5GW worth of wind energy can be installed.
The full paper has been published open access in the journal of Energy Research & Social Science, and can be accessed and downloaded via the link below.