Public opposition to wind power projects in Norway

Abstract

The wind power debate is ongoing in Norway with many different opinions regarding the issue. This thesis will focus on three wind power projects in Norway; Vardafjell wind farm, Frøya wind farm, and Kvitfjell and Raudfjell wind farm. While the wind farms are being approved, and also started to be built, there has been a strong opposition to the projects. The forms of protests have been different amongst the opposition of wind projects, where some protesters simply show up during planned, peaceful, in person protests, while others take it a step further. Both the equipment as well as human lives have been endangered while protesters have been showing their disapproval. Their reasonings for being opposed to the projects are also different, but research shows that some of the most common explanations are the fact that they ruin the nature where the windmills are built, endanger the lives of animals in the area, and also accusations of contamination.

The method that has been used in the thesis is a multi-case study which consists of three wind projects that have gained significant opposition amongst the Norwegain public. There have been secondary sources used to look into these three; Vardafjell wind park, Frøya wind park, and Raudfjell and Kvitfjell wind park. As for the purpose of the thesis, it was to look at possible explanations to tell why a large number of the public is against planned wind power projects. Further, the thesis will examine factors that can explain why people are against them, as well as the strategies used to try to make the projects fail before they are finished, and lastly the commonalities and differences between the three cases are the focus of the research.

The research conducted in this thesis uncovered that there are many similarities between the three Norwegian wind farms and the motives and strategies behind peoples’ oppositions. The main factors as to why people are against the wind power projects are that they do not want a place that holds spe-cial meaning to them to change, not wanting any possible contamination from the building site, and lastly to not disrupt the nature for the birds and animals in the area.

As for strategies used to stop the wind projects from further developing there are in person protests as well as protests online, complaining to authorities that are higher up in the decision making, ruining equipment on the construction sites, and putting their own as well as other people’s lives in danger. When it comes to commonalities between the three wind power projects there are quite a few; the ways in which people complain about the farms and ruin the property. However, there are not many differences, the only notable one is the fact that a protest group used derogatory descriptions of the workers of Vardafjell wind farm. This has not been reported in news articles for the other cases.