Solar Installations Make Good Neighbors

Last Updated on: 30th June 2025, 12:06 pm

Research published June 16, 2025, in the journal Frontiers — Sustainable Energy Policy finds that 82% of people who live within an hour’s walk (about 3 miles) of large scale solar installations find they make good neighbors. In addition, they either support such installations or are neutral about having more of them in their area.

“Most neighbors of existing large scale solar projects either support or feel neutral about additional projects in or near their communities, with only 18% opposing it,” said Sarah Mills of the University of Michigan, a co-author of the study. “Just as has been documented for wind energy, we found that the NIMBY — not in my backyard — explanation for opposition to solar was overly simplistic and unhelpful in explaining neighbors’ sentiments.”

According to a Frontiers blog post, the researchers sent surveys to people living within three miles of large scale solar projects installed between 2017 and 2021. Those surveys asked about their support for new solar projects and their experience living near existing solar installations. In total they received 979 responses that dealt with 379 solar installations from one to 328 megawatts across 39 states.

43% of respondents said they felt positive about their local solar project, 42% were neutral, and 15% said they felt negative. This result closely matched support for new solar projects generally. 43% say they would support new projects, 39% say they are neutral, and 18% say they oppose new large scale solar installations.

The Root Causes Of NIMBY

CleanTechnica readers are familiar with the NIMBY — Not In My Back Yard — phenomenon. This most often plays out as a plea not to ruin the look and feel of country communities, where red barns dot the landscape and the aroma of cow manure is omnipresent. In fact, much of that anti-solar animus is the result of carefully orchestrated resistance curated by pressure groups that are more likely to have their headquarters on K Street in Washington, DC than in an office near the local grange.

“It is increasingly apparent that NIMBY is at best an overly simplistic explanation for the complex dynamics that shape public attitudes toward large-scale renewable energy,” the researchers conclude [see original report for citations and food notes]. “One reason attitudes of local residents may be less positive than those of the general population is that exposure to the proposals to develop renewable energy in a local area can serve as a focusing event that highlights the potential impacts of development for residents that have a particular attachment to that locale.

“For example, the increasing scale of large scale solar project proposals may come as a shock to many residents, even if they are likely to support rooftop solar or smaller ground-mounted projects. Additionally, the policies and processes which determine how the public is engaged in siting and permitting can shape public attitudes, with the perception of unfairness often correlating with negative attitudes or opposition

“This has led some researchers to reframe social “acceptance” as social “acceptability” to emphasize the importance of the process through which acceptance does (or does not) develop. Rather than perpetuate the NIMBY framing or study community sentiments for the sole purpose of increasing acceptance, we assert that attitudinal research can help us to better understand the potential impacts of large scale solar and the social, economic, and political context in which it is developed.”

Yes In My Back Yard

The researchers created two models in an attempt to better understand the difference between social acceptance and social acceptability. The first focused on objective variables, such as the date a project was installed. The second model also included subjective variables like the reported impact on quality of life.

Most of the variables in the objective model showed only a weak correlation with support for large scale solar installations. The most influential factor was the size of the existing project. Respondents living near large projects were less likely to support additional projects. Subjective variables were much more strongly associated with support for additional solar projects, especially the perceived impact on community quality of life and aesthetics. However, there was one notable exception. Residents who reported greater familiarity with existing projects were less likely to support a new one.

“We can’t be certain that more familiarity causes lower support for additional solar,” said Mills. “Rather, we find that more familiarity is correlated with lower support. Our hypothesis is that residents who see the project more regularly feel that their community already hosts their fair share of infrastructure. That said, most respondents rarely saw, or were totally unaware of, the project prior to receiving our survey. So it could be that most in the community are essentially unaffected, whereas a minority sees it frequently and does not wish to see more.”

The researchers found that people living near solar projects seemed to be poorly informed about their local projects. How that is possible is a bit of a mystery, as the approval process for such large scale solar installations typically involves public hearings. Whatever the reason, it is clear that developers need to do a better job of communicating with local residents.

In particular, people need to hear how solar installations will provide additional tax revenue that can be used to fund schools, police and fire services, and other community services. In addition, information about the impact a large scale solar installation will have on local utility rates by limiting future increases is a message many residents need to hear.

Finally, local residents need to hear more about how the tax revenue from large scale solar will help fund local job training programs for those who want to find work in the renewable energy field. Oil and gas companies never do such things. They just want to wrest fossil fuels from beneath the land and move on, leaving their toxic wastes behind. It’s hard to imagine people really prefer oil and gas wells to solar panels, and solar developers should leverage that distinction.

Getting To Yes

The research also shows that attitudes about solar and other clean energy technology often involve what is known as “residential burden” — the perception that people in rural areas are sacrificing their pristine landscapes for the benefit of people in distant cities. At CleanTechnica, we have often advocated for renewable energy developers to do something so simple it almost seems like a no-brainer — share some of that lovely clean energy with the surrounding community.

Why not leverage the inherent benefits of locally produced energy to assure the community that it will be better protected from grid outages by creating a microgrid that can service the local population in times of emergency when electricity for local hospitals and first responders could be vital? If locals are watching all those panels being installed and all those wires connecting them to far away place going up, who can blame them for feeling resentful? “All politics is local, ” former House Speaker Tip O’Neill liked to say. That’s a message that seems to have gotten lost for clean energy advocates. We need to view things from the perspective of those who will be most affected and learn how to address their concerns.

The upshot of all this is that people are naturally fearful of new technology — until they get used to it.