The Impact of Public Acceptance on Cost-Efficiency and Environmental Sustainability in Decentralized Energy Systems

Renewable energy technologies exhibit economies of scale as well as the portfolio effect when spatially aggregated. But local resistance often hinders developments, especially for onshore wind. In decentralized energy systems, the landscape impact of wind turbines or transmission lines is a key barrier to public acceptance. By using landscape scenicness as a proxy for public acceptance, we quantify its impact on optimal energy systems of around 11,000 German municipalities. In municipalities with high scenicness, it is likely that onshore wind will be rejected, leading to higher levelized costs of energy by up to about 7 €-cent/kWh. Onshore wind would be replaced mainly by solar photovoltaics and the cost-optimal energy systems would be associated with higher CO2 emissions of up to about 200 gCO2/kWh compared to an average of about 50 gCO2/kWh. This quantitative basis can be used to first identify municipalities where public resistance to onshore wind could be particularly high. The findings regarding the resulting increase in costs and CO2 emissions help to support the scientific and policy debate about the location of onshore wind farms