How To Keep All Your Winds Favorable
Without an understanding of the wind currents of opinion in a community, developers expose their wind energy projects to destructive public opposition.
BY DAVID TREBEL
[North American Windpower, Vol. 4, No. 4, May 2007]
[Reproduced under protection of Fair Use for educational purposes.]
For months, even years, you have studied, probed, quantified, qualified, analyzed and defined wind profiles to site your project. You have sifted through mountains of data to find that one perfect place to construct your turbines. You know -- absolutely know -- this is the optimum site for placing those towers.
Engineering plans are drawn, and land use maps are produced. Permit applications are sent. Now, it is just a matter of time, right?
That answer depends on how well you really understand the wind currents of your site. This is the point where many wind power projects suddenly discover an unexpected stream of turbulence that knocks the whole project flat on its rear end.
This force of nature that catches you completely off guard is named Madge. She has two dozen bird feeders in her backyard, and she just read an article in her bird lover's magazine that says the rotating blades of a wind turbine could kill her feathered friends. Thanks to the impassioned pleas of Madge, the county commissioners just derailed all your welllaid plans in 20 minutes.
Without a good understanding of the wind currents of public opinion in the community, you are exposing your wind farm to the most destructive turbulence of all -- public opposition.
Avoiding turbulence
This increasingly common scenario is playing out in public hearings all across the country. In one sense, it is a good thing. It shows the maturity of the wind power industry.
However, it also exposes a soft spot in siting plans. Now is the time to add a new kind of analysis into your project portfolio -- market research. After all, as a good neighbor and a highly responsible industry, we have to make it one of our goals to gain public support for our clean and beneficial energy generation.
Wind turbine sites depend on public support in local communities for permitting. Without the same kind of "wind profile" that drives technical development, you cannot hope to avoid the costly delays and setbacks that a turbulent approval process brings.
Measuring opposition
Every community is different. In some communities, you will face a storm over esthetics. In others, it will be lifestyle issues, economic concerns or misinformation.
By studying the market and the attitudes and values of those in the local community, you can create a public opinion wind profile as detailed as anything you will harvest from anemometers at the site. What are the hot buttons in the community? What are they concerned about? What opposition are you likely to face in the political arena?
Typically, the opposition will fall into one of three general categories, including:
- esthetics (Wind turbines are a blight on the landscape. They ruin natural vistas. They are noisy. They disrupt the natural sights and sounds of the area.),
- economics (Wind turbines will hurt local tourism. Wind power is not reliable. The wind farm will hurt property values in the area.), and
- misinformation (Wind turbines kill large numbers of birds. Turbines are dangerous. They interfere with television reception in the community.).
Generating a plan
Having a clear view of the social and political profile of your new community allows you to be proactive instead of reactive to the issues that are local hot buttons. In marketing, there is a common formula for introducing a product, service or idea. It is called the A.C.C. matrix -- awareness, comprehension and conviction. (See Communication Plan flowchart.)
It is important to understand that whether you address it or not, the community around your project site will move through this matrix. A communication plan allows you to counterbalance the rumors and misinformation that will be part of the larger public dialogue.
- Creating awareness. Any marketplace begins in stasis -- complete unawareness of the new idea. Therefore, your plan starts by addressing that stasis and creating initial awareness of your proposed project. This plan can take the form of an announcement news conference, news releases or advertising.
- Comprehension. As basic information is seeded to the public, you weave in messages that answer the question, "What's in it for me?" As information (i.e., awareness) is placed into a personal context (i.e., comprehension), individuals begin to coalesce understanding into a judgment of the value of your project. Comprehension often is achieved through in-depth communications, such as news releases, targeted topical advertising or presentations to service clubs.
- Conviction. By following a communications plan, you help ensure the public's conviction will grow from favorable information on your project. The greatest percentage of the public will support you only if you lead them to that conclusion. Without a communications plan, you run the risk that the community will reach conviction without an understanding of your strongest arguments. Inevitably, that translates to opposition.
Taking control
Laying out action steps to take control of the matrix can involve any number of steps. A basic plan might lay out a road map of community education that includes:
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Public relations and advertising. News releases to local media outlets from the early stages of your siting process can help to shape awareness in a way that benefits you. Accurate information about the nature of your proposed project, its benefits and its economics can define the shape of the matrix when the public is still far from having set convictions.
Other public relations tactics, such as taking local reporters out to the proposed site and giving them a look at the way you are gathering data for your wind study, will help the public understand how much you are putting into the process of finding the perfect site.
Identifying community leaders who support your project and building a network of supporters will allow you to drive positive "coffee-shop talk" throughout the siting process. Whether it is a matter of word-ofmouth or helping supporters craft appropriate messages for letters to the editor, you want the conversations about the wind farm to work for you rather than against you.
Advertising approaches like brochures, print advertisements, radio commercials and billboards allow you to place very specific messages into the community. The advantage of advertising lies in the fact that it is not filtered through the media or advocates. - Start a local pro-wind group. Community leaders can help shape public opinion, but it is the activist citizens who will do the most for you or against you. By creating a pro-wind group, you allow activist community members to become your voice in the community.
- Do a little evangelizing of your own. Community service clubs are always looking for speakers. Put together a presentation that you can take to meetings. Presentations are a highly effective way to gain support among community leaders and activists.
Otherwise, you risk the day when you face the wrath of Madge. And she is the one natural force no wind turbine was designed to withstand.
David Trebel has been in the marketing, advertising and public relations industry for over eight years. He has helped grow Hellman, a 40-year strong firm, into a leading authority in the field of renewable energy marketing, advertising and public relations services. David specializes in corporate branding and public relations.