Beyond Nimbyism

Beyond Nimbyism: a multidisciplinary investigation of public engagement with renewable energy technologies.

Over the past few years, a succession of energy policy documents have revealed ever more ambitious goals for decarbonising the UK economy, from the 2003 Energy White Paper (2003) to the 2009 Renewable Energy Strategy. To facilitate a step change in carbon emissions reduction by 2050, it is now aimed to increase the proportion of electricity generated from renewable energy sources to 30% by 2020, from a current level of approx 5-6%.

The significance of issues of public acceptability are increasingly recognised by policy makers, the research community and other stakeholders as a necessary condition of reaching this goal. However, when we began our research in late 2005, our level of understanding of public views and how they might be relevant to the way in which RETs are evolving (including understandings of the public based upon the NIMBY ‘Not In My Back Yard’ concept), was both limited and restricted, excepting a few case-studies of onshore wind energy development.

In this light, this project, which is part of a major national programme funded by the Government’s Economic and Social Research Council, sought to significantly extend the current research base by examining a range of forms of technology which are expected to figure, to varying degrees, in the UK renewable energy profile – offshore wind, biomass of various forms, small scale HEP, large scale photovoltaics and more speculatively the various ocean technologies currently under development.

Part of a major national programme funded by the Government's Economic and Social Research Council. The project seeks to significantly extend the current research base by examining a range of forms of technology which are expected to figure, to varying degrees, in the UK renewable energy profile.

This research project was evaluated as 'Outstanding' in the end of grant peer review by ESRC.