Attitudes, threshold levels and cumulative effects of the daily wind-turbine encounters

An imperative factor in the identification of suitable wind-turbine locations and the subsequent development thereof is the general acceptance of the proposed wind turbines. In this perspective, the existing number of turbines is expected to be a driver of attitude. However, to date only a few studies have assessed the influence of the turbine density in the residential area has on attitude. The present paper sheds light on this issue and finds that attitude towards existing turbines is negatively related with the number of turbines encountered on a daily basis. If the respondents see more than five on-land turbines, they are less positive. However, conditional of seeing more than five turbines a day, opposition does not increase with increasing turbine encounters. These results suggest that the general long-run threshold for opposition towards wind turbines is five turbine encounters per day.

► We model attitude towards existing on-land wind turbines on a sample of 1084 respondents.
► We test the effect of the number of turbines seen daily on attitude.
► Seeing more than five turbines daily reduce acceptance of on-land turbines.
► Age, household income level and type of education influence attitude.