25.04.2023; Vortragsreihe
Kolloquium: Melanie Krause (Universität Leipzig) "Tail Wind at the Ballot Box? The Effect of Visible Wind Turbines on Green Party Support"
Abstract:
Whether pro-climate parties win or lose at the ballot box in an area where wind turbines were built is a matter of debate. Some of the sparse literature on this relationship finds negative effects, often interpreted as NIMBY behavior and concerns about noise and visual intrusion into the landscape. Other studies highlight economic benefits and habituation effects. We contribute by using new fine-grained data on the location of wind turbines in Germany to determine the visual exposure of residential areas to wind turbines. This allows us to estimate the change in the vote share for the German Green Party after voters see a wind turbine from their neighborhood for the first time. In most election periods, we find no significant effect of visible wind turbines on the Green Party vote share, suggesting that voters did not change their support for pro-renewable policies. Yet, for municipalities visually exposed in the 2021 election period, we find a negative effect. In these municipalities, an increasing number of citizens' initiatives formed prior to construction, hinting at an expansion to less supportive areas. This effect decreases with increasing proximity to the turbines, but does not increase with the number of turbines visible.