Sunburned? Conflict prevalence in 686 United States solar projects
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19487276 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Juniper Katz (0000-0002-8538-3818, University of Massachusetts Amherst, corresponding author), J You (0000-0002-4817-3651, Northern Michigan University), Natalie Baillargeon (0000-0002-0201-775X, University of Massachusetts Amherst), Alice Potapov (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Anmol Soni (0000-0001-9193-5220, Louisiana State University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 136 |
| Pages | 104747 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Energy Research & Social Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2214-6296 • E-ISSN: 2214-6326 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104747 |
| OpenAlex | W7161112556 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 42 |
Rapid growth in large-scale solar has intensified attention to land-use conflict, yet researchers lack systematic estimates of attention and conflict prevalence across the U.S. This study examines conflict-attention prevalence among large-scale solar projects and the institutional and demographic factors associated with intensity. We compiled a dataset of 686 solar projects that began operating between January 2022 and November 2023 and constructed a conflict-attention index for each by synthesizing news and social-media with a conflict lexicon. Generalized ordered logistic models relate four conflict-attention levels to permitting jurisdiction, project scale, and county demographics. We report five main findings. First, most projects show low contestation, with 56% falling in no or low conflict-attention categories. Second, 19% fall into the high category, exceeding prior quantitative estimates but falling below case-study findings. Third, state-level permitting jurisdiction is associated with a 16.9 percentage point increase in no-conflict probability and a 9.4 percentage point decrease in high conflict, relative to other permitting arrangements. Fourth, conflict-attention rises with plant size, with the probability of high-conflict attention more than doubling between the smallest and largest capacity quartiles. Fifth, Democratic vote share shows no significant relationship with conflict, and higher income is associated with modestly lower conflict-attention, patterns that diverge from wind siting research. Institutional arrangements and project scale, rather than partisan composition, appear to shape conflict and attention in our sample. This study introduces permitting jurisdiction as a predictor and demonstrates how policy process frameworks can measure policy conflicts at scale
Democracy · Falling (accident) · Inequality · Jurisdiction · Percentage point · Point (geometry) · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
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| Highly cited | No |
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