Public understanding of and support for wind power in the United States

Wind power has been identified as the most cost-efficient form of alternative energy. Americans regularly read news stories about wind power and see newspaper advertisements urging the public to support wind power. Yet because large-scale wind power is relatively new, we do not know how much Americans understand about it or what they think about it.U.S. public opinion about wind power has been studied, but only superficially. The survey questions used to gauge public opinion about wind power are broad, and often combine wind power with solar power. Moreover, few surveys ask more than one or two questions about wind power.We analyze the results of a U.S. national internet survey, conducted in 2008, that was designed to study public opinion about wind power. We present evidence that the public's understanding of wind power is relatively poor. We show what positive and negative characteristics of wind power the public regards as important. We develop a model to explain public support for expanding wind power, and we discuss the implications for the future of the wind power industry.