Renewable energy developers are facing more community opposition fueled by fossil energy stakeholders, but help is on the way.
About 30% of all renewable energy proposals in the US die on the vine, with local opposition among the top three causes. The outlook for a healthier industry could improve if developers were more adept at communicating about benefits and neutralizing misinformation, and a new, first-of-its-kind training program offers to do just that.RE+ trade show
With a teach-the-teacher approach, the training focuses on building a campaign that participants can use to train and skill-build with their colleagues.The need for a new approach to community engagement is clear. Earlier this year, the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory drew a gloomy picture of the state of affairs, based on a survey of 123 professionals representing 62 renewable energy developers.
As for the cause of both cancellations and delays, Berkeley Lab notes that the grid connection bottleneck is one of the top three factors. Local ordinances and zoning laws are another one. However, the main concern is the third factor — community opposition. The problem, as Tigercomm describes it, is that renewable energy developers have been working under the presumption that they can sashay through the permitting process just like energy stakeholders have done in years past, and that is simply not the case.
As explained by Tigercomm in a press statement, “the collapse of local media, increased partisanship and heavy social use on mobile phones have reshaped the communication environment renewable energy developers must navigate.”
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