20 February 2025

A review of renewable energy literature is as interesting for what is studied as for what is omitted. Researchers at the ANU Centre for Energy Systems (ACES) reviewed 369 worldwide studies revealing social and economic barriers and drivers to renewable energy deployment, and the most studied environmental impacts.

“The review demonstrated the great variety of impacts that renewable energy deployments can have on human and ecological communities and how influential the specifics of a given community are on the positive and negative impacts that eventuate,” said Bjorn Sturmberg, co-author. “Governments, and all stakeholders, need to carefully consider the local context of developments and engage sincerely with locals and representative of the local ecology.”

An interesting finding from the review was the correlation between support for renewable energy (RE) and a demographic of younger, highly educated people. The findings further revealed that younger people were more willing to pay for RE and were generally more optimistic about the positive aspects of RE.

Key social trends

Trust was the most mentioned social driver reflecting its key importance, independent of the type of economy. Trust was seen to play a crucial role, particularly in relation to building and maintaining community participation and community ownership of renewable energy assets.

The literature review elicited numerous aspects of successful projects, these include: understanding the local context, attending to the affective component of the local community, fostering a local champion, frequent and direct communication that mitigates against uncertainties and engages with perceived problems and active community participation. Social acceptance was also shown to increase in response to a degree of community co-ownership.

Visual encroachment and close proximity were found to be barriers to RE deployment. A well-studied aspect of RE was the relative proximity of RE installations to stakeholders. Generally, the closer the proximity of RE developments to stakeholders was found to correlate with lower acceptance.

Key economic trends

The two major economic drivers of RE deployments were high quality of institutional governance and RE subsidies. Conversely fossil fuels were advantaged through the absence of taxes or environmental prices particularly on pollution.

In the majority of the literature the importance of institutional governance was identified through shortcomings in governance.

Regarding technological costs, the most remarkable changes have occurred for solar PV and wind.

A barrier to renewable energy adoption is the ongoing support and subsidisation of fossil fuel use by national governments. Studies found opposition to removing these subsidies was particularly pronounced in fossil fuel producing countries such as South Africa, the Gulf States and Kazakhstan.

Environmental impacts

Sensitivity towards environmental concerns and climate change in particular was a major driver for support for RE.

In developed economies, environmental concerns were predominantly found to be drivers for social acceptance of RE.

Interestingly, very few of the papers mentioned the well-known global benefits of renewable energy such as carbon emissions and particulate matter.

“In recent years, there has been an increased amount of literature mentioning that place attachment should be investigated rather than just pure visibility impacts of renewable energy projects,” said Dan Virah-Sawmy, lead author and ACES PhD student.

“Place attachment refers to the deep emotional and social bonds individuals and communities form with their environment. Place attachment shapes their sense of identity and belonging. These connections influence public attitudes towards renewable energy projects, as people may resist developments that they perceive as disrupting valued landscapes, community ties, or cultural heritage. Understanding and integrating place attachment into energy planning can foster social cohesion, enhance community participation, and improve acceptance of renewable energy projects,” said Dan.

Underrepresentation of developing economies and first nation perspectives

The review found that developing nations and the perspectives of First Nations people were significantly underrepresented.

“Of the 369 studies, only 27 focused on the environmental impacts of renewable energy in these regions,” said Dan. Yet, these countries face unique challenges in the clean energy transition, balancing industrialisation with sustainability in ways industrialised nations never had to. With over 85% of the world’s population living in developing economies, the global transition to a sustainable future simply cannot happen without them.”

Only 4 of 369 studies mentioned First Nations peoples highlighting a problematic lack of attention to the unique perspectives, interests and impacts of and on First Nations peoples.

Co-location of RE with other economic activities

The ability to co-locate with other economic activities is a competitive advantage for RE technologies because co-location is generally not attractive for fossil fuel extraction or combustion facilities due to their pollution. Interestingly, existing fossil fuel infrastructures, such as decommissioned oil and gas platforms, are prime candidates for RE deployments.

The review points out that the economic advantages of colocation have not received much attention, which is a particular oversight as the scale of future RE deployments couple with land scarcity, will result in more co-locations of RE and other economic activities.

The paper was published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Review, Volume 207, January 2025: Socio-economic and environmental impacts of renewable energy deployments: A review – ScienceDirect