Apr. 21, 2011 - Understanding Wind Energy Initiative Hosts Wind Energy Landscape Symposium
Contact: Tim Ervin
231-723-4325
For Immediate Release
UNDERSTANDING WIND ENERGY INITIATIVE HOSTS WIND ENERGY LANDSCAPE SYMPOSIUM
in Partnership with Macalester College and National Science Foundation Study
Manistee, Michigan -- Manistee and Benzie Township leaders for the Understanding Wind Initiative will partner with a team from Macalester College to host a “Wind Energy Landscape Symposium” that is part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) study to assess and investigate the kinds of wind energy developments that are supported by communities.
The study and the symposium are led by Dr. Roopali Phadke of Macalester College. Phadke has been a Project Investigator for the past five years for two NSF grants to investigate community concerns with wind energy. The project was developed by a national advisory board including academics, energy practitioners and policy specialists.
“Broadly speaking, the goal of our work is to understand the social gap in public opinion about wind energy that suggests strong national support in the abstract yet often records social resistance at the local level,” said Phadke. She said that the goals of the Symposium are to:
· Define community values involving the character of their landscape.
· Invite, record and prioritize citizen concerns involving perceived impacts of current, planned and permitted wind energy developments
· Discuss and build consensus around mitigation options and best siting practices to proactively protect local resources
· Survey participants before and after the Symposium to understand if their participation influenced their perceptions of wind energy development
· Provide information that can be useful for the Understanding Wind Energy Initiative
The Understanding Wind Energy Initiative is led by a team representing Arcadia, Onekama, Bear Lake and Pleasanton Townships in Manistee County and Blaine and Joyfield Townships in Benzie County. The purposes of the Initiative are to support objective, fact-based community education about wind energy options and implications and to use the education process to review and make appropriate changes to local ordinances. Work is currently underway to identify organizations with wind energy expertise that can respond to community wind energy questions that were submitted over a six week period that included four community forums.
The Wind Energy Landscape Symposium will be held on July 6, 2011 from 8:30 a.m. to approximately 5 p.m. at the West Shore Medical Education and Training Center in Manistee. Phadke said that 3-4 symposia will be held throughout the nation as part of the NSF study. About 30 participants will be recruited to participate based on county demographics, aiming for balance in education, age, income, gender and race/ethnicity. Participants will be selected by the Macalester College team through a request for participation that will be widely distributed in early June 2011 by the Alliance for Economic Success, coordinator for the Understanding Wind Initiative. Participants will receive a $100 stipend for their time. The Symposium will be facilitated by staff from the Consensus Building Institute, based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Phadke said that participants will spend their day focusing on how wind energy projects may be designed to be compatible with current land use preferences. The group will discuss options for mitigating concerns through color, size, screening and other options. They will also discuss socio-economic impacts and possible options for responding to concerns. Participants will use interactive tools to manipulate the size, color and positioning of wind energy developments to assess how wind energy options may impact their landscape.
“As with the Understanding Wind Initiative, it is imperative that our work ensure transparency in decision-making, equal access and neutral facilitation,” Phadke said. “Any reports from the Symposium will not reference the names of participants to ensure candor.”
Phadke’s first NSF project compiled case studies of community conflicts involving wind energy developments at 12 different project sites in the nation that represented a range of project scales, regions, landscape types and developers. The study found that community concerns often involved four categories: socio-economic benefits; visual/aesthetic impacts; sound and health concerns; and wildlife issues. In all cases investigated under the project, communities were rarely asked about their preferences in advance of project development.
“The Wind Energy Landscape Symposium project is an unanticipated but highly appreciated addition to the Understanding Wind Energy Initiative,” said Brad Hopwood who is a member of the Initiative’s Leadership Team and serves as chair of the Arcadia Township Planning Commission. “At a minimum, it will be insightful to compare and contrast the concerns and questions that have been expressed through our public engagement with those raised by Symposiium participants. We also believe that the results will provide further insight and guidance as our respective townships consider wind energy ordinances that are most appropriate for their communities. We hope that the Symposium also develops some ideas and options that can be used for conflict resolution involving all forms of wind energy.”
Phadke is an Assistant Professor in the Environmental Studies Department at Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota. She received her doctoral degree in environmental studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She also has a masters of arts degree in Asian Studies from Cornell University and a bachelor of arts degree in Political Science from Wellesley College. She served as a National Science Foundation post-doctoral fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in the Science, Technology and Society Program.