Renewable Energy Driving Rural Change: Economic Diversification, Land Value, Agriculture, and Natural Resource-Based Tourism.

Environmental stewardship concerns foster national and state-level energy policies to stimulate alternative energy development and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The development of renewable energy offers one promising avenue to achieve policy goals at the federal or state levels. Like other alternative energy sources, from biofuels to solar, wind energy and solar energy may particularly affect rural community character, including cultural and aesthetic ecosystem services, due to changes in the local landscape, fragmentation of land cover, and, in this case, visibility on a relatively natural or managed agricultural horizon.

Because of these potential benefits and costs, researchers at the University of Connecticut and University of Delaware, on behalf of the United States Department of Agriculture, seek to understand your preferences regarding the installation of commercial wind farms and solar farms in your community.

Your participation is entirely voluntary, and you may choose to stop at any time. However, we encourage you to complete it as our results can affect communities across the US, particularly in the New York states.

Your identity will be kept confidential, and your responses will never be associated with your name in any research.