The evaluation of the public perception of the implementation of “Rajgród FW6 Polska wind farm”

Abstract

Renewable energy sources play a key role. The Polish legal system takes into account public participation in the investment process. This also applies to the construction of a wind power plant. In Poland, there is still opposition from local communities to the choice of location and the implementation of an investment project involving the construction of a wind power plant. The aim of
this article is to assess the public perception of the construction of a wind farm located in the municipality of Rajgród. The survey of the local community opinion was conducted on the basis of a questionnaire carried out through a direct interview. By using the conditional valuation method (CVM), which uses the ready-to-pay (WTP) techniques, residents’ preferences regarding participation in investment financing costs were also examined. Surveys carried out show that the inhabitants of the commune support renewable energy sources and some of the respondents are willing to partially subsidize them. The research has shown that there is a correlation between the age, education and income of the respondents and the amount of co-financing declared by them for the construction of a wind farm in the commune of Rajgród. The largest group of people willing to finance the investment were people in the age groups 26-40 and 41-65. The declared willingness to finance the investment was 1,86 EUR (10% of people) and 2,33 EUR (15% of people). These were people aged between 41-65 with their income of over 232,56 EUR. Only 2% of the respondents declared the amount of 1,16 EUR and they were people over 65 years of age with an average monthly income of about 116,28 EUR.