Establishing acceptability: wind energy and community in the energy transition

Energy transitions are invariably socio-technical phenomena. However, institutional bias toward resolving the associated technical and economic barriers has left significant blind spots with regards to the social and cultural contexts that both frame and facilitate transitions. While it characterizes the current malaise, particularly in relation to the planetary crisis, this approach has also undermined efforts to realize the systemic shift to a decarbonized energy future. Past energy transitions rarely considered issues of social justice or community cohesion. Instead, a minority of actors effectively captured the commons that had previously been available to a majority of stakeholders. The current transition is different and is notable by the diversity of voices visioning the types of future available to us and very much depends on the choices we make both collectively and individually. Even when the technical and regulatory barriers are addressed, ignoring the social dimension can and has undermined expected outcomes envisioned by policy makers. This chapter outlines one such example of the types of questions raised around community and cohesion as they relate to a wind farm proposed for the southwest of Ireland.