Construction process of a wind farm in south of Brazil: its implications for this neighborhood

RAFAELLA LENOIR IMPROTA; ENRIC POL

Conferencia; 22 International Association of People Environment Studies (IAPS) Conference; 2012

In many countries a growing promotion of renewable energies is observed, mainly because their quality to be clean energies that contribute to the sustainable life in the planet. In South America the reality of the renewable energy implementation is a novelty. Environmental psychology research has pointed that in the development of these projects, many times, the concern is more economic and environmental than social, when this is so; different degrees of rejection are observed among the neighbors (Devine-Wright, 2010; Pol, et al., 2011). In relation to the wind farms, aspects related to physical construction characteristics, like visual impact and noise (Wolsink, 2007), could influence on wind farm acceptance. Thus, there are other aspects like the degree of inhabitants` participation in the process of wind farm construction (Devine-Wright, 2005; Schweizer-Ries, 2008) and others that can influence the symbolic, affective and socially constructed aspects (Devine-Wright, 2005). Besides, a research done in the North of Brazil (Improta & Pinheiro, 2011) has found that factors like: wind farms as a symbol of progress, and the scholar level of residents, can influence the wind farm acceptance. Having in mind this novel reality of South American, this present study aims to longitudinally establish positive and negative factors that influence the acceptance of a wind farm by the population that lives nearby, during the construction and operation phases. For this, place identity, social representation and lifestyle concepts will be used. This research is still running. In this conference the preliminary data obtained in the wind farm construction phase will be reported. The wind farm affected area named Cerro Chato, is located in the south of Brazil. It is an agricultural area occupied by farms, where 45 wind turbines will be located in 24 properties of this area. The research procedure has been carried out with semi-structured interviews of 26 inhabitants, divided into four groups: 1. farmers that will have aerogenerators in their properties, 2. farmers that will not have wind turbines, 3. farms that did not want to have aerogenerators in their property, and 4. farmers employees who live in the properties interviewed. The interviews have been recorded and they are being transcribed to subsequently perform a discourse analysis. The preliminary results show that there is a positive perception of this wind farm. The people interviewed know about the project, about renewable energies and the importance of it as a clean energy production, and visually they consider them a positive asset. Meanwhile, a close interrelation has been evidenced between the company and the group of land owners who will have wind turbines, in comparison to other groups. Finally, it can be thought that if there is frequent interrelation between the company and the inhabitants, the latter seems to develop a positive perception towards the wind farm, as stated on previous researches.