Windfarms, social acceptability, and the environmental divide in Greece

Through a case study of one onshore windfarm project in Greece at its initial permit-granting stage, this article explores how social (un) acceptability at the local level is formed, as well as how and which stakeholders form alliances (or ‘discourse coalitions’) at the local and national level. Focusing on the environmental movement, the article provides empirical evidence from desk-research and interviews to better understand the significant, yet ambiguous, role of environmental NGOs in the national wind-energy development. Amongst others, findings indicate that compared to mainstream multinational environmental NGO’s, national environmental organizations seem to adopt a more critical and active role in debates around wind-power development. Overall, the article argues that environmental NGOs may affect social acceptability in opposite directions (acceptance of technology but disapproval of certain wind energy installations). However, direct involvement in local debates (affecting ‘community acceptance’) seems to be mostly undertaken by national and local environmental NGO’s and geared towards objecting (protest) rather than advocating certain wind-energy projects.