The role of place attachment in community renewable energy: an interdisciplinary study

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This proposal is for a collaborative interdisciplinary study drawing from human geography andplanning policy. It addresses a two-fold gap in knowledge; little is known about how placeattachment informs responses to community energy projects and no published studies todate have asked how a better understanding of this might inform planning policy andpractice.Renewable energy has widespread support (ComRes, 2016), but there is often strongopposition to specific proposals, which can lead to schemes being delayed or rejected (Jonesand Eiser, 2010). Place attachment, a concept used in human geography and environmentalpsychology to study the emotional bonds between people and places, has been shown toinfluence how people respond to large-scale renewable energy developments such as windfarms (Devine-Wright, 2011a), other large-scale energy infrastructure such as high voltagepower lines (Devine-Wright, 2013; Bailey et al, 2016), and smaller scale community energyprojects (van Veelen and Haggett, 2016). It has also been suggested that place attachmentmight be applied in planning policy to inform community engagement and help manageconflicts (Devine-Wright 2009).It is sometimes assumed that community ownership reduces opposition to renewable energyprojects (Bell et al, 2005), but van Veelen & Haggett (op. cit.) warn against this presumption.Their analysis of two schemes in the Highlands of Scotland is the only published study to datelooking specifically at place attachment in community energy; place attachment was found toinfluence widely varying responses. My proposal is novel in extending the evidence base toEngland and including an analysis of potential policy application.My study will be based on case studies in Cornwall, where plentiful renewable resources arecentral to policy for their contribution to the economy (Cornwall Council, 2013). CornwallCouncil seeks greater community ownership of generating capacity and has innovated inincluding this in supplementary planning guidance (Cornwall Council, 2016). Delivery has beenslow however, due in part to local opposition (Simpson, 2017, Niven, 2014); my studyaddresses this by developing understanding of the reasons for opposition and looking forways to address it through the development process.