People living near offshore wind proposals less likely to accept living near new wind infrastructure

Research released by the CSIRO has revealed Australians living near proposed offshore wind farm zones view new offshore wind projects less favourably than the rest of the country. The research — which surveyed 6700 people — found 24 per cent of people living near proposed offshore wind farm developments would reject living near new offshore wind infrastructure. This is compared to 16 per cent in other areas. The data is broken into five responses — I’d embrace it, I’d approve of it, I’d be OK with it, I’d tolerate it and I’d reject it. The proportion of people who would embrace or approve it is the same in both respondents near or not near proposed sites, and the increase in those who’d reject or only tolerate new offshore infrastructure comes from the “I’d be OK with it” section. According to the CSIRO, the trend of being more likely to reject the new renewable infrastructure is not followed by people who live in areas near existing solar or wind farm projects. Solar farms are the least objected to renewable infrastructure, followed by offshore and inshore wind, and then transmission lines as the least popular. CSIRO senior social scientist Dr Andrea Walton said the size of the study made it a valuable resource. “The value of such a large survey is we can report with a higher degree of certainty what a range of people think,” she said. ”The survey showed that most Australians supported the energy transition, but opinions varied about the rate and extent of change. “Many Australians held generally moderate attitudes towards living near renewable energy infrastructure, suggesting a broad willingness to support, or at least tolerate, the development of solar farms, onshore and offshore wind farms, and associated transmission line infrastructure.”