Preference and willingness-to-pay analysis for an eco-engineering technology for floating wind turbines

<p>Floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) raise concerns among coastal communities due to their potential impacts on marine biodiversity and fisheries. This issue is particularly striking in France, where the government is accelerating offshore wind deployment to meet decarbonisation targets while maintaining a relatively large fisheries sector. This study investigates public preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for an innovative eco-engineering solution aiming at enhancing marine biodiversity, supporting artisanal fisheries and minimising seabed disturbance. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted among 306 residents across five French coastal territories (i.e. departments) to quantify trade-offs among four attributes including structure material, biodiversity gain, fishery impact and additional cost on the electricity bill. Results from a conditional logit model reveal strong and consistent public support for eco-engineering features. Biodiversity enhancement, fishery revenue growth and the use of recycled steel for building eco-engineering structures were all positively valued by respondents, as reflected in their willingness to pay. The territorial variation was more limited than initially assumed, reflected in similar coefficients between departments, except for recycled steel, which showed variation between two departments. This paper provides new evidence on how targeted eco-engineering measures can improve social acceptability by combining preference modelling with ecological design considerations. The results show how important it is to include public preferences in the early design of floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) projects to improve both environmental performance and public acceptance.</p>