Detroiters more likely to support local solar power development if they think it reduces energy prices for their community

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Douglas Bessette, Michigan State University and Jacob White, Michigan State University

(THE CONVERSATION) Michigan residents overwhelmingly want more solar power.

In the spring of 2023, nearly two-thirds of 1,000 state residents surveyed supported additional large-scale solar development.

In the Energy Values Lab at Michigan State University, we study how the public, and specifically community members living near large-scale wind and solar projects, perceive those projects and the processes by which they are approved.

According to a survey we conducted in the fall of 2023 that has not yet been peer reviewed, there may be less support in urban Michigan communities, particularly among those already living close to an existing solar project. Fewer than half of the 158 residents who took our survey supported their local project.

And around the 10-acre, DTE Energy-owned O’Shea Solar Park in Detroit, support was even lower, with only a third of respondents supporting that project.

What predicted residents’ support of their local project? Mainly whether they saw the development process as just and benefiting local communities.

Those who believed the solar project lowered...