Local Residents' Acceptance of Environmental Impacts due to Woody Biomass Power Plants

Abstract

As researches on the community acceptance of woody biomass power plant are not sufficient, surveys were conducted to reveal it by analyzing occurrence of disputes, complaints, the level of impact perception and annoyance. From a newspaper article survey, 8 reports were hit by using keywords with “biomass and opposition”, including an article reporting the odor issue. Among 21 questionnaire sheets from municipalities, complaints occurred in 3 cases where local people concerned about noise, vibration due to lumber carrier vehicles, safety of lumber storage etc. The statistical analysis based on field surveys showed that the correlation was found between the distance and impact perception. However, results tend to be different in the two cases, suggesting that they are affected by site characteristics particularly of topography.