How do you like wind farms? Understanding people’s preferences about new energy landscapes with choice experiments

Abstract

This study aims at understanding people’s preferences about wind energy in order to foster the installation of new power plants in Italy. The application of a choice experiment allowed the willingness to pay to be estimated for the following attributes: wind turbines position, turbine height, number of turbines per wind farm and minimum distance of the farm from houses/coast. According to our results the majority of people perceive wind energy positively and prefer offshore wind farms. People recognise the importance of preserving landscape and think that wind turbines do not improve its beauty. In this respect the installation of new wind farms can be considered a second-best solution in terms of landscape preservation, but a first-best solution if other aspects are taken into account.