Economic and legal principles in renewable energy development policy - Solar, Wind and Land: Conflicts in Renewable Energy Development - page 8

disrupt sacred Native American burial sites, or numerous other avoidable
conflicts may result. Such conflicts are not only inefficient; they can also
tarnish renewable energy's public image in ways that ultimately impede
global progress toward energy sustainability.
When policymakers fail to anticipate and address the negative exter-
nalities associated with wind and solar energy development, outside parties
who suffer injuries as a result become more likely to mobilize and oppose
future projects—even worthwhile ones that pose minimal risks. And when
laws governing renewable energy land use conflicts are unsettled and
unclear, the resulting uncertainty can also slow the pace of development.
Accordingly, any comprehensive set of policies for promoting renewable
energy development must do more than merely correct positive externality
problems by incentivizing more of it. It must also appropriately account for
the external costs and conflicts that can arise from these projects.
Cost and benefit distributions in renewable energy development
Of course, the simplistic marginal cost and benefit curves shown above
do not paint a full picture of the complex dynamic that underlies most
renewable energy development projects. Almost every such project creates
some winners and some losers. The parties affected by any proposed
renewable energy development and their respective levels of support inevi-
tably vary but are worth considering in connection with any major project.
The diagram in Figure 1.5 illustrates the basic distribution of support for
a typical proposed renewable energy project. The small, centermost circle
in the diagram represents those parties proposing it. In some cases, such as
when a homeowner purchases and installs a solar array on her rooftop or a
small wind turbine in her backyard, the only party in this circle is owner of
the project site. In other cases, such as when a property owner leases land
for a wind farm project in exchange for a promise of payments upon the
project's completion, a developer and one or more separate landowners are
in this circle. Regardless, the parties in this centermost circle are typically
supportive of the project and believe that it will confer a positive net
benefit to them; otherwise, they likely would not be proposing it in the first
place.
The parties in the outermost circle in Figure 1.5 are those that have
no direct interest at stake in a proposed renewable energy project. These
parties are also likely to support the project or to abstain from actively
opposing it. Non-stakeholders living hundreds of miles away from a
proposed wind or solar project have little reason to expend time or effort
in trying to stop it. Renewable energy development produces several well-
established global environmental benefits that often extend far beyond the
immediate vicinity of a given project to such parties. These generic benefits
help to explain the broad general support that the wind and solar energy
industries enjoy throughout much of the world. 7 They also help to explain