US: ‘Not in my backyard, not in my sea’ – What offshore wind can learn from missteps in other industries

Securing community acceptance is a business-critical task, according to a new report on potential costly effects that public opposition to building offshore wind infrastructure could have on projects, looking at the experiences from other renewable energy industries in the United States.

And while stakeholder and community feedback are a developer’s must-have, the developers seem not to be overly invested in ensuring public engagement is more than well set. At the same time, project opponents are advancing and utilising new ways to organise, share and widen the circle.

“NIMBY campaigns are professionalizing. They are getting more sophisticated and effective, they are being supported by professional organizers, they have secured funding by incumbent sectors, and they connect through online resources”, the report, recently published by the U.S. clean energy communications company Tigercomm, states.

Several planned projects in onshore wind and solar energy have lived only long enough to see their realisation being rejected, following strong opposition from communities.

Offshore wind has also had its “first contact” with community rejection that ultimately led to a project being terminated.

Namely, in 2017, the development of the proposed 468 MW Cape Wind offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound was cancelled. According to Bloomberg’s news at the time, the project could not get pass the opposition, involving even the Kennedy family and billionaire industrialist William Koch, and the cancellation of PPA contracts in 2015.

Offshore wind developers could learn from experiences in other industries, as well as the Cape Wind experience, and employ a better approach to public engagement to avoid being struck down after already having invested in project planning and project-related programmes.

“Far earlier than in other sectors, offshore wind is being driven by experienced, deep-pocketed players, drawn to the tremendous growth potential in the $70B addressable U.S. offshore wind market. The current range of large companies pursuing OSW have no excuse for bootstrapping community acceptance by skimping on budgets, staff and scale”.

One important thing, which might seem trivial to some extent, that developers seem not to put enough effort in is the online world, and especially social media. The report cites Avangrid Renewables’ spokesman Paul Copleman as saying Facebook has become “the new town square”.

“Local communities are increasingly making early-stage decisions online. This is particularly true in small communities, which make up the lion’s share of the 1,300 towns that are now “news deserts” — communities with no local news media serving them”.

“The consensus is that NIMBYs now organize online, then show up in the room”, the report reads.

And yet, an analysis Tigercomm carried out, comparing online engagement by project opponents with the one from onshore wind developers, has shown that the developers invested very little or no effort to bring their concepts closer to the communities.

Which brings us to the second do: “Win the race to define”. According to the report, being the first to “frame” the project is an immediate advantage.

The momentum created in the most early stages is hard to catch up later. Each wind farm should be treated as a product that must be narrated, the report states.

Here, the third issue and a solution to it emerge. Tigercomm says that too many companies in the clean energy sectors treat digital platforms as a means of distribution, instead of engagement.

“Basically, another version of the traditional news release. The ‘post and forget it’ approach is leaving communications power on the table, and it stands in stark contrast to the online NIMBY conversations”.

It’s critical to fully integrate the use of digital tools with in-person community acceptance efforts. Using digital platforms to parallel the back-and-forth of in-person conversations will much more likely assure members of local communities that they are heard. Online criticism included.

The criticism expressed online is usually an asset, according to the report. Opinions expressed on social media in real-time can show both proponents’ and opponents’ arguments, as well as any changes in opposition arguments.

Furthermore, having the right staff to manage public engagement efforts is of utmost importance. Here, recruitment should be focused on hiring people who have successfully done the same thing for others, and who have experience driving public affairs outcomes.

“Politics and policy are a full-contact sport. If your company is out to take market share from active incumbents in an industry with significant regulatory exposure, you will be fought, not ignored. And captured regulators will be part of the toolset used by incumbent sectors”.

This, ultimately, means not cutting corners in having experienced personnel deal with public affairs, and investing in dedicated management of public engagement on social media (the new town square).

Read more in the full report.