"Last fall, Solar Today readers learned about rising opposition to large-scale renewable energy development in communities nationwide. Author Joel Stronberg mentioned groups like the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions and Citizens for Clear Skies, whose names belie campaigns that promote misinformation and dismiss urgent clean energy goals.
Stronberg cited a 2023 study from the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law that cataloged nearly 300 renewable energy projects across 45 states that experienced serious organized opposition between March of 2022 and May of 2023 - a 40% increase in such projects compared to the year before.
New research confirms the causes of this rising crisis. A survey of solar and wind developers released by Berkeley Lab in January 2024 found that permitting challenges and community opposition closely followed grid-interconnection constraints as the top three reasons for large-scale solar-project cancellations. Problems with financing, supply chains and power sales pale by comparison.
The threat that a vocal minority of citizens can pose to solar project approvals and ultimately to U.S. climate goals is real. But efforts to improve permitting processes and to see solar opposition in perspective are also gaining strength, thanks largely to formerly silent citizens who are standing up for solar."
Read this article by Jill K. Cliburn, ASES fellow...
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Kat Friedrich
Editor in Chief
American Solar Energy Society
Monona WI
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