Renewable energy vs. cultural preservation - Solar, Wind and Land: Conflicts in Renewable Energy Development - page 119

6 Renewable energy vs. cultural

preservation

As illustrated in the previous two chapters, many opponents of renewable
energy projects are generally supportive of wind and solar energy but
happen to believe that some other ideal—saving trees, protecting wildlife,
etc.—should take precedence over a particular project. Indeed, many
conflicts over renewable energy development are ultimately clashes between
competing interests that are each noble and legitimate in their own right.
This chapter focuses on yet another important social policy goal that can
complicate renewable energy siting: cultural and historic preservation.
The basic premise underlying most historic preservation efforts is that
society should protect and preserve cultural and historic resources for the
benefit of future generations. Historically-significant sites and artifacts
can be powerful educational tools, vivid reminders of a society's past
failures and successes, and precious contributors to a nation's social
fabric. Destroying or altering cultural and historic resources to serve short-
term interests imposes costs on generations yet unborn who might have
otherwise benefited from witnessing those resources in their undisturbed
condition. In that sense, preserving historic resources is a gift to the planet's
future inhabitants, enabling them to extract value from significant sites and
cultural items for centuries to come.
Of course, new renewable energy projects can clearly benefit future genera-
tions as well. 1 New wind farms and solar arrays reduce the quantity of fossil
fuels that utilities must burn to meet customers' energy needs. By displacing
fossil fuel combustion, renewable energy can slow the pace at which such
combustion impairs global ecosystems and exhausts the planet's finite supply
of nonrenewable energy resources. Renewable energy projects can also
improve a nation's long-term economic security: once installed, a solar energy
system or wind turbine can generate clean, usable electric power for decades
with relatively minimal maintenance. For these and other reasons, new wind
farms and solar arrays can likewise confer valuable benefits to those who will
occupy this planet decades or even centuries from now.
Unfortunately, the competing ideals of historic preservation and
sustainable energy can come into conflict whenever a newly proposed
renewable energy project threatens to harm a precious cultural resource.