In a blog post on November 27, 2024, the World Economic Forum asks, “Why does building more renewable power in the United States feel like an uphill battle?” It suggests we start by looking at what people post about renewable energy on so-called social media, which is about as anti-social as things can get. “Solar doesn’t work because the sun doesn’t always shine,” is one common sentiment. “Solar panels will break when there are storms,” says another, and “Solar is not affordable,” claims a third. Messages like this appear across many social media platforms thanks to the unflagging efforts of special interest groups who want to slow down the advancement of renewable energy to satisfy their own personal interest, which is another way of saying they are greedy and would happily condemn the majority of humans to sickness and an early death if it puts an extra nickel in their pockets.
This is the biggest challenge facing the renewable energy industry and it can only be overcome by proactively engaging with local communities, reforming the permitting process, and applying scalable, proven project development frameworks, the WEF says. The Markets and Policy department at Berkeley Lab surveyed 984 Americans living within three miles of large-scale solar projects across the United States. By a ratio of almost three to one, those who responded to the survey held positive attitudes about living next to a solar farm, which suggests community buy-in is already happening. What is missing is the mobilization of supporting community members to drown out the special interest groups fighting clean energy development.
Credit: World Economic Forum
WEF says those special interest groups have a head start, because their efforts have resulted in 395 local and 19 state level restrictions in 41 states that have effectively blocked renewable energy projects. Combating those restrictive policies won’t be easy. The Edelman 2024 trust report found that people trust their peers as much as scientists and that public trust in media, government, and academia has eroded. Renewable energy advocates need to take the time to win friends and secure trust before the proposed renewable energy projects ever get to the permitting stage.
Those conversations must happen early and often and the story needs to be told simply, without the complex industry and academic jargon. The benefit for renewable energy developers is that proper early engagement with local stakeholders can prevent special interest groups from fomenting local opposition based on misinformation. The oil and gas industries play this game very well by investing in community liaison officers who talk to people about the benefits of oil, methane, and coal projects at town halls, barbecues, and local fairs.
A few years ago, the state of Maine embarked on a plan to get 100,000 heat pumps installed, a goal that was bitterly opposed by fuel oil and propane dealers who carpeted the state with misinformation. The initiative was successful, however, because clean heat advocates walked down hundreds of roads in the state, knocking on doors, and educating people about how heat pumps work and explaining the many ways they could save Maine residents money during the winter heating season. In the end, the program was more successful than anyone dared to hope. Today, Maine is approaching 200,000 heat pumps installed. Getting out and talking to people is a vital part of countering misinformation and disinformation about renewable energy.
The complex permitting process in the United States causes development cost overruns and project delays. In some cases, developers simply withdraw or cancel a project. The renewables industry and regulators must work together to overcome local opposition, a process that has been successful in other countries. The WEF points to Denmark and the Netherlands, two countries that have created a transparent, one step process for all the permitting approvals. This approach has allowed developers to budget and plan for project completion while keeping the public fully informed. Germany and Spain have increased transparency by digitizing the permitting process, while the the United Kingdom is streamlining the process and driving earlier community involvement.
In the United States, the state of New York provides a streamlined and transparent permitting framework for large-scale renewables and California does the same for large-scale wind and solar projects. California’s SB 100 law, which set a target of 100% clean energy by 2045, and California’s AB 2188, which requires local governments to implement expedited solar permitting, are great examples of state-level legislation that is helping unleash California’s renewable energy potential.
Community Engagement
Delivering a successful energy project requires developers to ensure benefits or harms do not create a burden on certain segments of the population. That makes it essential to adopt project development frameworks that incorporate centralized permitting, full public transparency, early local engagement, and public financial incentives. Turnkey solutions exist and offer proven approaches, strategies, and activities that enable developers to secure stakeholder understanding, support, and collective decision making around project siting and permitting. Taking advantage of these frameworks makes it possible for developers to engage honestly and transparently with disadvantaged communities that may see little to no benefit or incentive from the ongoing energy transition. The goal is for no members of the population, whether people or businesses, to feel left out. Engagement with the fossil fuel sector and communities impacted by the shift to low carbon energy is essential.
WEF says the results of recent elections and global political shifts are concerning to those worried about the health of our planet, and rightly so. People everywhere are experiencing the toll of climate change as homes are destroyed by extreme weather, critical ecosystems are disrupted, and more public health challenges emerge. The need for urgent action was made clear by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Synthesis Report in 2023, which said, “Climate change is a threat to human well being and planetary health. There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all. The choices and actions implemented in this decade will have impacts now and for thousands of years.”
Not every election or policy decision will support a sustainable future, however. That’s the reality, the WEF says. What matters is that the renewables industry uses the time we have now to explain transparently and in no uncertain terms the many benefits of clean power, including securing a sustainable future for the United States and the planet for generations to come.
The Takeaway
There are several factors that are making the road to a sustainable world steeper. So-called social media was expected to help bring people together, but the owners of the social media companies soon realized there was money to be made by splintering people into opposing groups. Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google with the mantra of “Don’t be evil,” but if you allow the platform they created to guide your online experience, very quickly you will be treated to stories about Haitians eating dogs and links to neo-Nazi websites. Meta, X, and Apple are guilty of similar behavior because the money is just too good to worry about truth, accuracy, or fairness.
All politics is local, Tip O’Neill always said. He was right. People hate being told what to do by some distant authority that blows into town to big foot the local population. The WEF recommends the Denmark model, but here at CleanTechnica headquarters, where all of us are above average, we think much of the opposition to renewables could be offset if more of that low-cost clean energy was shared with the local community.
People don’t care about generating electricity for a data center or some Wall Street banker, but they do care about lowering their own utility bills. If some emissions get kept out of the environment, so much the better. Appeals to saving the planet, or polar bears, or glaciers are all well and good, but they are abstract ideas that don’t resonate very much with people struggling to pay their bills. Streamlining the permitting process too often means ignoring the needs of those most affected by those decisions. Treating people like they are irrelevant is the surest way of energizing the opposition. Renewable energy proponents have a lot to learn about how to get people to support their mission. A little respect goes a long way.
