Resolving Renewable Energy Siting Disputes
Preparing community members, renewable energy developers, municipal staff and a new generation of renewable energy practitioners to understand and build consensus around resolving opposition to renewable energy facilities across the United States.
Course Information
Learn for Free
About this Course
Much to the surprise of policymakers in the United States who recently allocated vast amounts of money to support the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy as part of the U.S.’s climate strategy, there is substantial opposition to such facilities across the country.
While the media has framed this opposition in terms of a few selfish individuals trying to stop change from happening in their communities, our research shows something else entirely. Many stakeholders have good reasons to oppose specific renewable energy facilities given the way they have been designed and located. The renewable energy permitting process in most states does not provide adequate opportunities for facility opponents to raise their concerns or to work with proponents (i.e., private investors) to resolve their legitimate differences. Unless local opposition is handled more effectively than at present, the U.S.’s efforts to decarbonize its energy system will be severely delayed or even blocked entirely.
Resolving Renewable Energy Siting Disputes is an online course designed to expose a range of learners interested in enabling the energy transition to consensus building approaches. Learners who will most benefit from this course include college students who want to pursue careers in the renewable energy space and mid-career professionals such as public officials and renewable energy developers.
Through a series of explanatory videos prepared by experienced university experts, stakeholder advocates, Tribal leaders, and industry spokespeople, case studies of real-world renewable energy development, role play simulations and debriefings, and short assigned readings, you will learn how to establish consensus in renewable energy siting processes.
Topics include:
- Pros and cons of different renewable energy technologies
- Equity and environmental justice in the energy transition
- Regulated and deregulated energy markets
- Siting processes on public land
- The dynamics of local opposition
- Distribution of opposition sources
- Sharing solutions with stakeholders
- Developing trust
- Stakeholder assessment and representation
What you'll learn
- Questions you need to ask to prepare a stakeholder assessment.
- The importance of community engagement and collaboration for the successful implementation of renewable energy projects.
- Various sources of opposition to renewable energy projects and the underlying contributing factors.
- Skills in transparent communication, active listening, and fostering trust through consensus building.
- Strategies and techniques to mitigate adverse impacts, utilize contingent agreements, and address uncertainties in renewable energy development.
Prerequisites
None. This course can accommodate a range of learners including those with limited knowledge or experience in the field.
Meet your instructors
Lawrence Susskind
Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning
Larry Susskind is Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning at MIT where he has been a member of the teaching and research faculty for almost fifty years. He is head of MIT’s Science Impact Collaborative (scienceimpact.mit.edu) and teaches a variety of negotiation courses for undergraduates, graduate students, mid-career executive, and senior managers. Larry is co-founder and Vice-Chair of the inter-university Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School (pon.harvard.edu) and founder and chief knowledge officer of the Consensus Building Institute (cbi.org). Through these two organizations, Larry has provided face-to-face training in negotiation, conflict management and collaboration to more than 30,000 individuals in 30 countries.
Larry has authored or co-authored more than twenty books, reprinted in eight languages, including Good for You, Great for Me: Finding the Trading Zone and Winning at Win-Win Negotiation, Built to Win: Creating a World-Class Negotiating Organization, and Entrepreneurial Negotiation: Understanding the Managing the Relationships that Determine Your Entrepreneurial Success.
