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

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 different levels of the following attributes: wind turbines position (offshore, plain, mountain/hills), turbine height, number of turbines per wind farm and minimum distance of the farm from houses/coast. Data were collected by means of a web-survey. According to our results the majority of people perceive wind energy positively and prefer offshore wind farms. The respect of a minimum distance from houses/coast is another key factor in reaching consensus for the installation of new wind farms. This research confirms how landscape perception is an evolving concept. 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, such as reduction of the impacts on landscape, health and the environment of traditional power plants.