When wind turbines become visible, support for renewable energy can decline
New study shows that visual exposure to wind turbines can influence political support for climate policies.
The expansion of renewable energy is a cornerstone of climate policy. While wind energy is widely supported in principle, people living near wind turbines often experience the local consequences of the energy transition directly. A new study by researchers at Leipzig University now shows that the visibility of wind turbines can reduce support for renewable-energy policies under certain circumstances. Published in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, the study examines how visible wind turbines affected voting behaviour in Germany between 1998 and 2021.
Using data on more than 28,000 wind turbines, high-resolution geospatial information, digital surface models, satellite-based settlement maps, and municipal election results, the researchers calculated whether turbines were visible from residential areas and tracked how political support changed after municipalities first became visually exposed to them.
“Our findings suggest that visual exposure to wind turbines can influence attitudes toward renewable energy,” says Vincent F. Stegmaier, research fellow at the Faculty of Business and Economics at Leipzig University, who conducted the analysis. “Importantly, we find that these effects have become stronger over time as public debates about wind energy have become more polarised and landscape impacts more salient.”
A unique feature of the study is that it focuses on municipalities that can see wind turbines located in neighbouring jurisdictions and compares them with geographically close control municipalities. This allows the researchers to isolate the effect of visibility itself from other factors associated with hosting turbines, such as tax revenues, local participation in planning processes and economic benefits.
Effects particularly pronounced in rural areas and in locations with organised opposition
The analysis found that visible wind turbines did not lead to a measurable decline in support for pro-renewable parties during the early stages of Germany’s energy transition. In more recent years, however, municipalities that became visually exposed to wind turbines experienced significantly lower support for parties associated with renewable-energy expansion.
The effects were particularly pronounced in rural areas and in locations where organised opposition to wind energy was present. At the same time, the researchers found evidence that local financial participation schemes and economic benefits can partly offset negative reactions.
“Our results do not imply that people reject renewable energy as such,” explains Professor Melanie Krause, who wrote the paper together with Stegmaier. “Rather, our findings highlight the importance of perceived fairness. Residents may react negatively when they experience the visual impacts of wind turbines but receive few of the associated benefits or have little influence over siting decisions.”
According to the researchers, the findings underline the importance of designing renewable-energy policies that consider not only national climate goals but also local perceptions and distributional effects.
“The success of the energy transition depends on maintaining public support,” says Stegmaier. “Policies that increase local participation and ensure that benefits are shared more broadly may help reconcile ambitious climate goals with concerns about landscape change.”
- „Headwind in sight? Wind turbine visibility spillovers and support for renewable energy policy“, Doi: 10.1016/j.jeem.2026.103386
