Most big US solar projects don’t spark backlash after all, study finds

Despite the impression that large solar farms are constantly sparking local fights, a new study from researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that most large-scale solar projects in the US move forward with relatively little public opposition.

The study, published in the journal Energy Research & Social Science, looked at 686 utility-scale solar projects that came online between January 2022 and November 2023. Researchers found that 56% of the projects fell into “no” or “low” conflict categories, while just 19% experienced high levels of conflict.

The findings push back against the idea that opposition to solar development is widespread across the US.

“All I saw in the news was conflict, conflict, conflict over solar,” said lead author Juniper Katz, assistant professor of public policy at UMass Amherst. “But there was really very little research that operationalized what conflict means and looked at it from a national scale to understand if the appearance of conflict was as prevalent as it seemed.”