Issue: Solar

This study examines how different sources of corrective information may correct such misinformation from Republican elites who blame renewables for power grid failures.

A video featuring landowners discussing the benefits of solar energy enhances local support for siting and permitting utility-scale renewable energy projects. Landowner-centered videos enhanced support by 20-25 percentage points (compared to a video unrelated to energy). Groups most persuaded by this message were Trump voters, non-farm landowners and people living in urban areas. The target sample included people in “priority counties” in 25 states with potential for solar development (AZ, CA, CO, DE, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, ME, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NM, NV, NY, OH, PA, TX, VA, WA, WV).

Over the past 20 years working in the climate movement, I’ve been part of both countless campaigns to secure a “transformational win” and countless attempts to support better sharing of data, testing, and other advocacy lessons learned. Today, the Lab is thrilled to launch a new IRA Data & Insights Hub in partnership with impact agency 89up, which collects and synthesizes IRA campaign data, translating the results into actionable insights to inform advocacy and communication strategies. A huge thank you to the 23 organizations (and counting) who have generously contributed their testing results to the Hub!

Videos featuring individual personas can increase favorability towards transitioning to solar energy. This research found that all four “creator-produced” messages were persuasive in favor of solar energy, especially among Republicans, Trump voters, white people and conservatives. Specifically, the “Solar Co-Op” message had the highest lift [17%], followed by “Landowner” [16% lift], “County Official” [15% lift], and “Day in the Life” [11% lift]. Some subgroups were more persuaded by different messages. Solar Co-Op (Morgan) was most persuasive among ages 55+ and conservatives, while Landowner (Byron) was most persuasive among those with a Bachelor’s degree or higher and County Official (Marta) generated strong effects among ages 18-34 and household incomes making less than $49K.

Indiana voters have heard about renewable energy, but they are somewhat skeptical about its benefits. 9 in 10 Indiana voters have seen or heard something about renewable energy in the past month. Voters over 50 years old are more likely to have seen or heard something in the past month. Nearly two thirds of voters have at least some awareness of a renewable energy project being developed in their county. A plurality of voters believe that local renewable projects do more harm than good, while 28% of voters lack strong beliefs about the net benefits for local residents. Around half of respondents found all four messages persuasive but respondents were more skeptical of the messages suggesting lower electricity prices and taxes. Republican and Independent voters find the ‘Reliability’ message most persuasive and the ‘Property Tax Savings’ message least persuasive. This research surveyed persuadable voters in 19 priority counties in Indiana to capture baseline support for local clean energy projects and to test pro-clean energy messages, prior to the launch of pro-clean energy advertisements.

Local residents have common concerns about large-scale solar (LSS) projects. Residents’ most common concerns are associated with either LSS development processes or impacts, and center on the type and amount of information provided, the community’s influence over project design, the efficacy of community subscription efforts, as well as projects’ economic, environmental, and visual and landscape impacts. This research is based on 54 interviews with a broad set of stakeholders including residents, officials and developers at seven LSS sites across the US. Some strategies have been employed to improve perceptions and project outcomes, which include increasing in-person engagement, more explicit discussion of project tradeoffs, third-party intermediaries acting as community champions, and explicit requirements for meaningful local economic benefits.