Abstract
Expansion of the off-shore wind power capacity plays a significant role in the wind power strategy in many EU countries. However, off-shore wind farms are associated with visual disamenities. The disamenities can be reduced by locating the wind farms at larger distances from the coast. But, the costs per kWh produced increase as the distance is augmented. In this paper, peoples’ willingness to pay for a reduction in the visual disamenity of off-shore wind farms is elicited using the economic valuation method Choice Experiments. The economic valuation scenario comprises the locations of 3600 MW of future off-shore wind farms at; 12 km, 18 km and 50 km from the shore, relative to an 8 km baseline. Using a fixed effect logit model, the average willingness to pay, as an additional annual amount for electricity, are estimated to be 46, 96 and 122 euros/household/year for locating wind farms at 12, 18 and 50 km from the coast opposed to 8 km. The results also reveal that the WTP deviate strongly with regards to the age of the respondent and the experiences with off-shore wind farms. These properties of the WTP are believed to have significant policy related consequences. Keywords: Visual Disamenities, off-shore wind farms, choice experiments, fixed effect logit, willingness to pay.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 2006 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Publication status | Published - 2006 |
| Event | The World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists - Kyoto, Japan Duration: 3 Jul 2006 → 7 Jul 2006 Conference number: 3 |
Conference
| Conference | The World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists |
|---|---|
| Number | 3 |
| Country/Territory | Japan |
| City | Kyoto |
| Period | 03/07/2006 → 07/07/2006 |
Keywords
- Former LIFE faculty
- Visual disamenities
- Offf-shore wind farms
- Choice experiments
- Fixed effect logit
- Willingness to pay