Wind energy deployment in wind farm aging context. Appraising an onshore wind farm enlargement project: A contingent valuation study in the Center of Italy

In many European countries, the most suitable onshore sites for wind installations are almost fully engaged. Furthermore, the existing onshore wind farm capacity should be replaced in the next 10 years because the existing wind power plants are progressively aging in terms of depreciation, degradation and technological obsolescence. Without an adequate policy intervention, the Italian installed wind power capacity would return to the size of 2011 by 2030. In this scenario, the main opportunity for further growth in wind energy generation is wind farm enlargement. The aim of this paper is to assess the welfare change due to the proposed enlargement project. First, we investigate whether existing wind farms affect respondents' attitude and perception toward the potential enlargement of the wind farm by using the contingent valuation method. Second, we investigate the perception of the risk associated with the enlargement of a wind farm. In this case, we explicitly consider respondents' heterogeneity in perceiving the new project externalities. To achieve this objective, we use willingness to pay and willingness to accept measure to appraise welfare change due to the enlargement project. Each of these measures has been elicited jointly regarding the respective appraised externality impact perceived by the respondents. The individual and aggregate findings of this research can offer useful insights for planning and design enlargement schemes to achieve further growth in wind energy generation.