'We're arrogant': Iberdrola's Galan says green giants need humility as project opposition soars

Local opposition and cultural resistance came sharply into focus when a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos was asked to contemplate the challenges to a global pledge to triple renewables capacity over the next six years, with Iberdrola boss Ignacio Galan warning that big utilities have been guilty of "arrogance" in presenting their projects.

A Davos panel whose members included Galan and US climate envoy John Kerry, agreed that the world has the technological capability to meet the targets for renewables, but they mulled over the challenges posed by such a massive deployment of renewables and grid infrastructure.

Many of these related to planning, permitting and financing, but the topic that detained the panelists most was the need to deal with questions on land use, community acceptance and biodiversity.

“Yes, we have the technology, and good policies, but what we're seeing from 2018 to 2022, whether it's in the EU, or India, or Africa, or in the US… is that there was a sixfold increase in opposition to wind projects," said Jennifer Morris, CEO of environmental non-profit entity, The Nature Conservancy.

With US climate envoy John Kerry pointing out that the commitment means expanding from around 3,400GW today to over 11,000GW, Morris argued that the sector will need to be "very smart" to achieve this aim.

"One aspect of this is proper planning," she said, pointing to a joint initiative with the Global Renewables Alliance, launched at COP28, which included "a five-point plan for looking at communities and why are they opposing renewables in areas where they can be ... nature positive, and really good for those communities."

Ohio opposition

In the US, Morris gave the example of the farming heartlands of Ohio, where signs opposing utility-scale solar projects can be seen on every roadside.

"I asked my my in-laws who live there, why is there so much opposition to solar? You're getting more money per acre than you are for corn or soy. Why aren't farmers embracing this? And they said, 'We are farmers, we are not culturally equipped for this new energy. And quite frankly, we don't like how it looks,'" she recounted.

Iberdrola's executive chairman Galan, who has long been one of the most vocal among industry leaders in identifying permitting delays as the main bottleneck facing renewables, stressed his own upbringing in rural Spain as he agreed with the need to engage with local communities.

"I think I know a bit how the farmers behave, how they think. And I think in many cases, we big utilities, we are very arrogant. We say we are going to do this or that project... and we tell them it is good."

He argued that farmers must see benefits and care must be taken not to disturb traditional ways of life.

'Too arrogant'

"I have to say, because of my experience of 25 years, we big utilities are too arrogant, we need to be much modest in the way we treat these local communities, showing how they can benefit," Galan added.

In the US, Morris pointed out that the logic of geographical cultural factors could also be seen in the support for solar found in traditional coal-producing regions in Kentucky, where PV installations are often in upland mountain regions already degraded by mining.

"The coal industry is running down but they want utility-scale solar. This is a community which is proud of their history producing energy. We have to be smart think about cultural drivers," she said.

Taking an example of a 7,000 acre site in Eastern Kentucky where local support was overwhelmingly positive, Morris identified two factors underpinning supportive. "One, it's out of sight. You don't see it. It's on top of a mountain. Number two, this is a community that's used to producing energy in fact, this communities so proud of their history of energy production.

"They continue that pride with solar. And it's just wonderful to see, if we do it smart, if we really think about those cultural drivers for acceptance of change, and go to the right places, we can get to that 2030 target," she stated.

Galan said the kind of "humility" that he was advocated included maintaining a preference for more sparsely-populated regions and then to make efforts to make local communities confident that they are gaining something, rather than losing.

"First we try to ensure all construction brings local jobs, or in the surrounding region. The second thing is making sure that villager and those who do local budgets see the benefit in the bill... they see that now my electricity was costing 10 and now it's costing five, because they own this field or part of that field," he said.

The third thing is to try to re-skill the people of this area in a way that they can take those skills to other places.... So we need to transmit the sense of ownership of one or another. If not, it doesn't work," Galan stated.

Combative Kerry

Kerry agreed with the importance of cultural factors when assessing potential resistance to renewables infrastructure.

"Just to emphasise that the largest and fastest deployment of wind and solar in the United States of America is Texas, the home of oil and gas. They understand energy, and they're fine with these," he said.

However, Kerry also stressed that there are battles to be won on the issue of permitting

"We have 2,000GW of backed-up demand in waiting for [federal energy regulator] FERC... and we have a Congress that, regrettably, has not been able to reach agreement to get the permitting sped up or to create a statutory requirement for timeframe," he said.

"I am not for throwing out... all environmental consideration, and having the NEPA [environmental evaluation], but I'm not for taking five years to do it. And I'm not for having five to 10 years of litigation that ties you up so it's impossible to attract the capital, and it becomes that much more expensive," he said.

On the same panel, the European Union's commissioner for energy Kadri Simson said the EU is trying to take a more systematic and coordinated approach to permitting and planning.

Morris congratulated the EU for what she saw as a more holistic approach, with more consideration for where projects are nature positive and where communities did or did not want renewables. She argued that there is more than enough degraded land available to help win community support and get to the targeted 11,000GW.

"But we've got to be smart... and do deep community engagement, before we rush in and try to do something that's going to be opposed. And that's not just about nature, it's not just about economic development, it's really about going fast to get to that 2030 number and that tripling goal, we have to do it in a much much smarter approach to planning, which I think the EU is leading the way on," she stated.