Research on social acceptance of renewable energy has been prolific and productive in shedding light on various explanations and causalities for the manifold social responses to the deployment of renewable energy. This research has also highlighted nuances in community interactions with, and contestations over, offshore wind as an established and emerging technology.
However, there is limited evidence juxtaposing how socio-economic impacts are addressed in academic literature and practice. There is therefore a need for a review of the socio-economic impacts of Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs) across scientific research and practice, and to consider how socio-economic impacts have been addressed in planning processes.
Report on assessment of socio-economic impacts of offshore wind farms
Summary and Conclusions
Table of contents
1Purpose and scope
This report presents a qualitative review of prevailing socio-economic impacts of offshore wind farm developments and their assessment methods as addressed in academic literature and practice.
The report pursues three objectives:
- establish a shared understanding of socio-economic impacts of offshore wind farms;
- provide an overview of prevailing socio-economic impacts and juxtapose them with social and economic issues highlighted in the scientific literature;
- identify approaches and challenges of assessing key socio-economic impacts in practice.
2Conceptual considerations: Socio-economic vs. social impacts
The review of scientific literature and Environmental Impact Assessment Reports (EIARs) has revealed ambiguities in the use of the terms socio-economic and social impacts. Since the social dimension of effects within impact assessments has been described as either socio-economic or social, the differentiation remains blurry in theory and practice. This report uses socio-economic impacts as the overarching term.
EU directives tend to frame impacts through their effects on people, activities and economic conditions, while the IAIA takes a broader view that also encompasses culture, identity, health and well-being. This difference is reflected in both academic research and impact assessment practice.
To make a necessary differentiation more transparent, this report uses socio-economic impacts and employs the following understanding:
Socio-economic impacts refer to effects on human activities and material conditions as well as their social and economic consequences, while social impacts specifically refer to non-material effects on people’s lives (e.g. cultural, health. well-being effects in general).
The demarcation and definition of specific impacts is context-dependent and are determined by affected receptors. In this report, we innovatively utilise a taxonomy to make sense of common receptors and impacts in relation to offshore wind farms.
3Socio-economic impacts of offshore wind
Despite advances in Social Impact Assessment (SIA), the approach promoted by the IAIA has received limited attention in assessments of offshore wind farm developments. In Europe, socio-economic impacts are usually considered within Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) and Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs).
Although EU legislation allows both the biophysical and human environment to be considered, assessments of socio-economic impacts remain limited, often focusing primarily on economic effects. Strategic assessments generally focus on screening potential effects on population and human health rather than assessing them in detail.
Offshore wind farms and their associated infrastructure can affect both offshore and onshore receptors. At sea, they may restrict access to areas used by existing marine activities, resulting in negative economic effects. On land, construction, transmission infrastructure and increased port use can generate both negative and positive impacts, including infrastructure improvements and employment. Offshore turbines may also affect coastal communities and activities such as tourism, particularly through their visibility from the coast.
Considering relevant receptors, physical changes and the spatial distribution of effects, the following socio-economic impacts are commonly addressed in SEAs/EIAs:
Impact on…
While SEAs and EIAs tend to focus on economic and value-related considerations, scientific literature increasingly takes a broader approach, placing greater emphasis on the human dimension. It also addresses socio-economic impacts through research on social acceptance and gives more attention to positive impacts and benefits than EIARs.
4Assessment tools for socio-economic impacts
Assessments of socio-economic impacts examine the scope of effects through various steps that involve scoping, baseline studies, predictions, and impact modelling to estimate the significance and magnitude of the effects (i.e. impact). Although predictions of impacts are inaccurate (notably due to an unclear materialisation of effects and their variable long-term consequences in relation to existing conditions), impact assessments aim to reduce uncertainties associated with the implementation of offshore wind farm projects.
Despite common assessment frameworks across countries and national guidelines, the application and combination of specific methods as well as the assessment level of detail vary. The need for combining methods indicates that no single method sufficiently captures the multitude of potential socio-economic effects.
5 Current challenges in assessment practice
Socio-economic impacts tend to be understudied in comparison to environmental impacts in offshore wind farm planning. In practice, socio-economic issues are commonly limited to impacts on sectors like fishing and tourism, and assets like cultural heritage and landscape/ seascape that have economic repercussions or affect social values. Broader social impacts that affect the quality of life of individuals and coastal communities (e.g. place identity, culture, seascape values, stress, etc.) are rarely investigated, even though they reflect issues that may matter most to people. The extent of which different countries attach importance to socio-economic issues also differs. For instance, in the UK, there is more focus on such issues than in Denmark.
Assessment uncertainties arise from missing, incomplete or inaccurate baseline data and limitations in the explanatory power of assessment methods. Since assessments are mainly based on predictions and estimations of impacts, there is also uncertainty about the exposure pathway of receptors and the magnitude of the effect.
The assessment of socio-economic impacts is challenged by limitations in current assessment procedures:
- A recurrent issue refers to limited or inappropriate methods for sufficiently assessing impacts, even if data sources are available for describing baselines.
- The meaningful description of the baseline and assessment of some impacts requires active involvement of affected communities, who can be reluctant (e.g. fisheries) to engage.
- The assessment of impacts often involves expert judgement as the final step to estimate the magnitude of the effect (i.e. impact), which also depends on the knowledge and personal experiences of consultants and is prone to different interpretations and conclusions.
There are also challenges related to the temporal scope of impact assessments:
- Socio-economic impacts are dynamic and tend to materialise over longer periods throughout the operational lifetime of offshore wind farms, while assessments provide a snapshot in time.
- A lack of long-term monitoring of actual effects once an OWF has been established leaves assessments unverified and is claimed to obscure differences between predicted and actual impacts (e.g. effects on tourism).
- Socio-economic conditions are dynamic and fluctuate over time, which creates difficulties in determining effects.
6Basis for further work
The results and insights from the findings of this deliverable provide a basis for subsequent project tasks and deliverables in relation to:
- Discussing and clarifying terminological obscurities for obtaining a shared understanding of socio-economic impacts.
- Identifying a priority list of socio-economic impacts taken further in the research project and for integration in the planned decision-support tools.
- Developing a foundation for requirements for stakeholder engagement in impact assessments by identifying key impacts and associated stakeholders.
- Addressing specific methodological challenges in socio-economic impact assessments for OWF development.