Renewable energy campaigners are often surprised who comes out against their projects. Many imagine opposition may come strongest from anti-environmental or conservative forces. And that may be true.

But it’s also the case that there has been fervent opposition to renewable energy projects from:

• NIMBY folks (with real worries about the sound of wind turbines or poor use of land for solar fields to trumped up worries about solar panels leaking and causing pollution or wind turbines killing more birds than they save);
• Folks worried about “good land use” (whenever you build a project, folks compare it to what otherwise might be on the land — and they may critique renewable projects for not fulfilling some hopes/goals);
• Environmentalists (they may be worried about monocultural landscapes with a sea of solar panels or other impacts to a particular project);
• Regular citizens whipped up in opposition (maybe because they’ve been told this will increase their electric bills…).

A New Zealand campaigner tells the story:

In a rural town a small opposition stopped a community wind farm from going ahead. Weirdly that opposition were mostly environmental activists who had been involved in protesting coal mining (so obvious allies to a clean energy project). My analysis after having heard both sides of the story is that they were offended that they (or the community more broadly) weren’t consulted enough and had concerns about how community funding was used… Concerns weren’t addressed and the initiator of the project.

Eventually, the citizens concerns grew. A group did a massive misinformation pamphlet drops claiming environmental damage from the project. And with a divided community, the final nail in the coffin was council not granting consent.

This is not a one-time concern. Across the globe, there is an increasingly coordinated opposition to climate solutions. And to stop a project, you don’t have to convince everyone — you just have to sow a lot of doubt.

So many of the very same NIMBY tools climate activists have attempted to stop fossil fuel projects can now be turned and used against us. (Although in our case, we don’t have multi-million dollar budgets to advance our case.)

A report from National Public Radio in the US reports:

[M]isleading ideas about renewable energy come from groups with ties to the fossil fuel industry, like the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The foundation recently released a film trailer for an anti-offshore wind group in Massachusetts that features multiple falsehoods, including the untrue statement that the proposed project didn’t do any environmental impact assessments and the incorrect idea that offshore wind projects “haven’t worked anywhere in the world.” The Texas Public Policy Foundation did not respond to a request for comment.

But Facebook is one of the biggest drivers of misleading content about renewable energy, says Josh Fergen, a researcher at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Last fall, Fergen and his colleagues published a paper looking at the Facebook posts of Kitson’s group and another large wind opposition group, about 90 kilometers east, fighting the Republic Wind Farm.

National Public Radio, Misinformation is derailing renewable energy projects across the United States

Because much of that fear is being stoked by right-wing efforts who have other agendas, it can be very risky to discount the people raising the concerns themselves.

But those concerns need to be addressed — and quickly before they blow out of proportion. The sooner you can do these the better:

• Reach out to key individuals in many sectors, including folks representing “good government,” land use, environmentalist, city/municipal government to assuage concerns;
• Listen very carefully to people showing doubt — and be ready to give them factual information right away;
• Invite concerned residents to take tours of other locations where they can talk to people who have had good experiences with solar/wind;
• Watch local pages on Facebook (or other social media platforms) and be ready to respond quickly;
• Produce your own local material on social media to advance the case;
• Be a trust-worthy source: Do not over-state your case — do not downplay “there’s no impact” and instead acknowledge what the impact would be; do not claim “lots of jobs” if your project would only bring a few — or just temporarily;
• Associate your project with local community events.