Posters

Abstract

Research suggests that citizen investment in wind energy projects can enhance the social acceptance of such projects (Brennan et al., 2017; Musall and Kuik, 2011; Warren and McFadyen, 2010; Jobert et al., 2007). Compared to developer-owned projects, those in which local citizens have some degree of ownership are generally more acceptable to local citizens as they provide greater economic benefits to local communities (Slee, 2015; Yin, 2012), while they also create a psychological sense of ownership among local citizens (Warren and McFadyen, 2010). The existing literature provides mixed evidence however on the willingness of citizens to invest in wind energy projects. One the one hand, a number of studies have examined the willingness of citizens to invest in local wind energy projects and have found that citizens either have a low appetite for investing (Johansen and Emborg, 2018) or prefer to receive compensation payments (Vuichard et al., 2019; Hyland and Bertsch, 2018). In contrast, other studies have examined how the attributes of renewable energy investments influence citizens’ willingness to invest and have reported a stronger appetite for investment. In these studies, citizens are found to have high willingness to invest in projects that offer attractive financial features (Curtin et al., 2019; Gamel et al., 2016). This paper contributes to the literature by examining Irish citizens’ willingness to invest in wind energy projects (local, non-local and portfolios of projects) which offer annual returns between 2% and 6%. In addition, the paper explores the factors influencing citizens’ willingness to invest.