A representative survey of 6,284 people in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia found that political orientation was more closely associated with local onshore wind support than whether respondents lived in an urban or rural area. Trust in public institutions and perceptions of fair planning procedures were also closely linked to support—but the findings describe associations, not proof of what causes any one person’s view.
What the North Rhine-Westphalia survey found
Jörg Radtke of the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) examined social factors associated with attitudes toward onshore wind energy in a representative survey of 6,284 people in North Rhine-Westphalia. RIFS published its summary on 5 October 2026. The study is identified as “Gaps in mind: Political and spatial cleavages in local onshore wind attitudes in Germany,” published in Energy Policy as article 115475, DOI 10.1016/j.enpol.2026.115475. Read the RIFS summary.
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The central result challenges a familiar explanation of local wind disputes: the urban-rural divide was comparatively weak in the reported analyses, while political orientation had a stronger relationship with attitudes. RIFS quotes Radtke: “Our findings contradict the notion that conflicts over wind energy can be explained primarily by a divide between urban and rural areas.”
How political orientation compared with place of residence
For support for expanding wind energy in a respondent’s own district, the RIFS summary reports approximate average scores on a five-point scale:
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| Voting intention | Urban respondents | Rural respondents |
|---|---|---|
| Did not intend to vote for the AfD | Around 3.6 out of 5 | Around 3.6 out of 5 |
| Intended to vote for the AfD | Around 1.5 out of 5 | Around 1.5 out of 5 |
These are approximate averages reported by RIFS, not individual predictions. The summary says differences between urban and rural respondents within the same voting-intention group were minor. It also reports that political orientation had the strongest structural correlation with local acceptance even after accounting for other social characteristics. That is a statistical association; it does not show that voting intention causes a person’s position on a local wind project.
Why trust and fair procedures matter
Political orientation was not the only factor linked to support. Trust in independent science, planning authorities, politicians, media and other public institutions, together with perceptions of procedural fairness and transparent siting decisions, was closely associated with local acceptance. When project-related factors were included in the statistical models, they explained a significantly larger share of variation in support, according to RIFS. The RIFS public summary does not provide model statistics, so the size of that increase cannot be quantified here.
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This points to a practical distinction: general views about wind energy and judgments about a particular project are not necessarily the same thing. How a location is chosen, when people can participate and whether the decision-making process is seen as fair all belong in the discussion of local support. The findings do not establish that a particular engagement method will secure approval.
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What residents wanted to know before construction
Information needs crossed political groups. Before construction, respondents wanted concrete details about the proposed project:
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Trust in information sources differed more. Respondents without AfD voting intention more often named science and environmental organizations as trustworthy. Respondents intending to vote AfD showed lower trust in institutional actors overall and more often preferred binding procedures, such as referendums. Political actors and wind companies were generally named less often as trustworthy sources. These are group-level patterns in the survey, not a rule for judging any individual resident.
What the findings suggest for project planning
RIFS recommends planning engagement around differences in institutional trust and participation preferences, rather than treating urban or rural residence as the main dividing line. Its guidance combines several elements:
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- Publish clear, transparent criteria for selecting project sites.
- Offer meaningful opportunities for public involvement early in the process.
- Set out clear rules for local revenue-sharing or other community benefits.
- Provide credible information through actors residents regard as independent.
- Use in-person events alongside digital formats; face-to-face events were valued across the groups studied, while receptiveness to digital or visualization-based engagement varied more.
Radtke cautions against relying on one tool: “A fair process cannot be reduced to a single instrument.” He adds that financial participation can be one component, but should sit within broader transparent decision-making, early involvement and clearly defined local benefits. These are recommendations from RIFS’s public summary, not guaranteed ways to increase acceptance.
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The findings concern surveyed residents in one German state and attitudes toward onshore wind energy. The reported comparison is between AfD voting intention and no such intention, and between urban and rural residence, using support for expansion in one’s own district on a five-point scale. It should not automatically be generalized to other countries, elections, technologies or individual projects.
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RIFS’s public summary does not state the survey dates, exact question wording, subgroup sizes, response rate, coefficients, confidence intervals, model fit or full survey instrument. It reports associations, not causal direction. The results therefore support a careful conclusion: in this survey, political orientation tracked local wind-energy attitudes more strongly than residence, and institutional trust and procedural fairness were also closely linked to support.
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