Abstract
In recent years, research and policy discussions about the social impacts of renewable energy development have increasingly turned to the concept of energy equity––or, “the goal of achieving equity in both the social and economic participation in the energy system, while also remediating social, economic, and health burdens on those disproportionately harmed by the energy system” (Initiative for Energy Justice 2019). However, though the lens of energy equity is increasingly being applied to wind energy deployment, the perspectives of communities on wind energy equity have been largely left unconsidered. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) Wind Energy Equity Engagement Series (WEEES) has sought to improve understanding of equity in land-based wind energy by compiling knowledge from researchers, decision makers, industry professionals, and communities that have experienced wind energy development. A previous report discusses findings from the first three phases of WEEES: a survey, subject matter expert interviews, and a stakeholder workshop (Gill et al. 2023). This report covers the fourth and final phase of WEEES, a series of community listening sessions on the topic of wind energy equity. In the summer and fall of 2023, a research team at NREL partnered with community-based organizations in three different cities across the U.S. to codesign and cohost the listening sessions. These gatherings were an opportunity for community members to share their past experiences with wind energy development and envision what an equitable wind energy future could look like where they live. The NREL team qualitatively analyzed notes taken during the listening sessions to build an understanding of participants’ thoughts and experiences regarding wind energy equity. The team organized the analysis according to key themes that emerged during the first three phases of WEEES, each of which has three or four relevant subthemes (Figure ES-1).