Objectives

Social acceptance deals with dynamic issues concerning the promotion, adoption of, or resistance against, new phenomena, elements and technologies in the transformation of current energy systems, rather than simple preferences by certain actor groups. In the transition to a more sustainable energy system, the development and adoption of new technologies does not only need to be grounded on enabling innovation systems, but also needs to be accompanied by social and political legitimacy of the technology. Therefore, before AWE can potentially achieve a large-scale deployment within the transformed energy system, the technology must be ‘constructed’ as socio-politically legitimate and sound. This means that not only industrial actors, but also political institutions, regulatory frameworks and the wider public need to construe the technology as desirable, purposeful and appropriate. However, the process of establishing socio-political acceptance and technology legitimacy is not void of conflicts and can vary over time. For example, the AWE technology as a mobile infrastructure differs from conventional wind turbines insofar that it requires three different types of resources. The wind resource to produce electricity, the land on which the devices can be mounted, but also airspace in which it flies around, which potentially necessitate different regulatory requirements than what is in place now. On the other hand, the characteristics of a mobile infrastructure system may also carry certain advantages and respond to specific needs, in comparison to conventional wind farms. This DC project will examine how different stakeholders and institutional and regulatory contexts co-produce socio-political acceptance and (il)legitimacy of AWE. First, the DC will explore how different stakeholders in different countries - such as policymakers, industrial actors, planners, local politicians and communities, the media etc. - view AWE as a new technology, how the technology is represented and (de)legitimised by them and how they address challenges and requirements related to its technological advancement and upscaling. Second, the DC will identify legitimacy gaps and examine the institutional and regulatory conditions that facilitate or hamper the advancement of AWE. Third, the DC project will explore how stakeholders construct preferred and acceptable sites or locations for AWE.

Expected Results

Current status of socio-political acceptance of AWE. The impact of national regulations on AWE and how they need to change to accelerate deployment. How different regions, geography and regulations impact where AWE is installed. A set of policies that can be adopted by governments to help accelerate the development of AWE. A set of communication strategies that can be adopted by the AWE sector to improve social acceptance. An identified set of actions and milestones that the AWE sector needs to achieve technological legitimacy.

Supervisory team

David Rudolph is main supervisor, Linda Kamp is academic supervisor.

Planned secondments

Kitepower (M15-M21) investigate technological legitimacy with Kitepower partners, supervised by Claudio Vergara.