This study contributes to fuller understandings of the tensions in wind energy planning and politics. Through a q-method analysis of wind energy supporter and opponent discourses in communities hosting both proposed and constructed projects it extends the literature in three main ways. First, this study responds to the need for more nuanced understandings of wind energy supporter perspectives. It identifies and contrasts an impatient supporter with an idealistic supporter discourse. These differ in content, in constituents and in time of use. Second, it identifies an absolute opposition and qualified opposition discourse. Neither of these discourses confirm an expectation from previous studies that landscape and place attachment are the primary determinants for wind energy opposition, rather concerns over health risks, wildlife habitat and a rebuttal of the climate benefits of wind energy are of key concern. Finally, the study contributes to a critical mass of q-method studies of wind energy siting disputes from which tentative general patterns are identified.
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