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211 Great Lakes, Great Debates Facilitating Public Engagement on Offshore Wind Energy Using the Delphi Inquiry Approach ERIK NORDMAN, JON VANDERMOLEN, BETTY GAJEWSKI, AND AARON FERGUSON INTRODUCTION Land-based wind energy is a mature, established electricity-generating technology. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that in 2009, wind turbines generated 10,886 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity, enough to power 6.7 million homes (Energy Information Administration, 2011a, 2011b). Offshore locations, including the Great Lakes, offer exceptional wind resources with the potential to produce 50 gigawatts (GW) of electricity-generating capacity (U.S. Department of Energy, 2008). One wind development firm has already proposed an offshore wind farm off Michigan’s Lake Michigan coast (Scandia Wind Offshore, 2010). However, there is considerable debate over whether offshore wind energy development is appropriate and acceptable in coastal West Michigan. Tourism is a multi-billion-dollar industry in Michigan with beach and waterfront activities among the most popular with shoreline visitors (Costa, 2010). The West Michigan area in particular boasts miles of sandy beaches, quaint towns, and recreation opportunities ranging from charter fishing to kite surfing. With such popular tourism and recreational resources possibly at stake, the West Michigan Wind Assessment used a facilitated group discussion called a Delphi Inquiry to understand the conditions, if any, under which offshore wind energy development in Lake Michigan could be acceptable to residents of West Michigan. This chapter summarizes the resulting thoughts and concerns expressed by the stakeholder participants in this Delphi Inquiry. THE DELPHI INQUIRY The Delphi Inquiry (also known as a Delphi Method or Delphi Process) is “a qualitative method used to combine expert knowledge and opinion to arrive at an informed group 212| Nordman et al. consensus on a complex problem” (Donohoe and Needham, 2009, p. 416). The Delphi Inquiry is not a randomly sampled survey of public opinion. Instead it is a facilitated iterative discussion among participants with relevant knowledge of the subject in question. The Delphi Inquiry method has been used in many different fields, including management of the Grand Traverse Bay watershed (Ludlow, 1975) and wind turbine noise ordinances in Michigan (Alberts, 2007). Over the years Delphi Inquiries have used many approaches, but the foundation of this structured communication technique for complex problems usually involves the following: • An opportunity for participants to contribute their views on the topic • A request for feedback from participants on these contributions • The compilation of feedback and then an assessment of the group judgment • An opportunity for participants to revise their views based on this compilation • The possibility of consensus within an anonymous format (Linstone and Turoff, 1975) The complex problem for the West Michigan Wind Assessment’s Delphi Inquiry was Under what conditions, if any, would West Michigan communities find offshore wind energy development in Lake Michigan acceptable? This “big picture” problem was reduced into a series of smaller questions addressing the following: • The benefits of offshore wind energy development in Lake Michigan • Ways in which communities in shoreline counties could capture those benefits • The challenges of offshore wind energy development in Lake Michigan • Ways to mitigate those challenges • Specific topics about which residents would like more information Public meetings held during 2010 on offshore wind energy development in Michigan have indicated that coastal residents hold a wide range of views on offshore wind energy development (Klepinger and Public Sector Consultants, 2010). For example, some West Michigan residents espouse a preservationist perspective in which they believe it is inappropriate to build wind farms in Lake Michigan no matter what benefits might come to their coastal communities. The project team made sure that all questions were open to such perspectives. Participants The study area comprised five lakeshore counties: Allegan, Ottawa, Muskegon, Oceana, and Mason (figure 1). Mason County was not part of the original West Michigan Wind Assessment study plan. It was included in the Delphi Inquiry because the Aegir Offshore Wind Energy Project was originally proposed for an area offshore from Mason and Oceana counties (near Ludington, Michigan). The Aegir project has since been revised to include locations offshore from Muskegon and Ottawa counties (near Holland and Muskegon, Michigan). Facilitating Public Engagement| 213 During the summer of 2010, the project team created a list of possible Delphi Inquiry participants based on the following considerations: • Participation from within all five counties in the study area • Geographic diversity within these five counties including both shoreline and inland communities • Diversity of professional expertise • A minimum of forty invited participants from each county to contribute to the...

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