<p>There often exist hard-to-identify or unforeseen external parties that emerge as indirect stakeholders of a project who can significantly influence its execution and outcome. The broader stakeholder landscape in both theory and practice recognizes the local community including other interest groups of a project site as such key stakeholders. However recent cases have revealed shortcomings in managing this category of stakeholders, leading to authoritative rejection of development permit applications and strong local opposition that consequently increase costs and delay to the project. There is indication that a weak community stakeholder management process in the planning stages can cause problems to the project, or worse, in some cases lead to project failure and abandonment by the developer. Wind energy development projects are not exempted from this condition and are possibly even more prone as they involve the erection of tall wind turbines across wide-open landscapes that are deemed controversial and unacceptable to a wider population. Endorsed by the persuasive rationale for wind energy especially in view of the environment and sustainable development, a more comprehensive and effective guidance for community stakeholder management in the planning stage is required to mitigate, if not eliminate, potential issues that can hinder the successful implementation of wind energy development projects. Hence this thesis primarily seeks to answer the research question of: “How should community stakeholders of wind energy development projects be managed in the planning stage prior to permit application?”.</p><p>Using a qualitative approach to research through interviews with several industry practitioners and reviewing secondary data of industry best practices, policies, literature and case studies, 16 community stakeholder management key conclusion points could be made from research data collected. These points are individually important while in aggregate form a broad and novel framework that serves to further raise the awareness and readiness of wind energy development project managers in their community stakeholder management initiatives. A baseline list of community stakeholders and their common concerns were identified, together with suggested approaches to identify community stakeholders in each project. Community consultation is key to the process and engaging the community as widely and early as possible is recommended. Furthermore, key principles and an array of common methods for community stakeholder management in the planning stages of the project are presented, while acknowledging that not all stakeholders can be satisfied at each instance. Ultimately these findings were consolidated in a community consultation checklist that serves as a more systematic and practical tool in guiding project managers in their community stakeholder management initiatives during planning.</p><p>The research findings herewith contribute valuable insights to the existing body of knowledge in this area and also provide enhanced practical guidance to project managers in achieving successful community stakeholder management during planning, facilitating higher acceptance for the proposal, carrying out a more efficient and effective planning process and improving the likelihood for project approval from both authoritative and judiciary standpoints.</p>

<p>There are several participants in the renewable energy sector, each one having their own perspective, according to their interests. One renewable source of energy is wind. Development of wind energy projects is complex and implies the conjunction of several endeavors that are hard to be undertaken by only one organization. The complexity of wind energy projects demands the interaction among actors, that is, the creation of partnerships.</p><p> </p><p>The purpose of this study is to question the nature of partnerships as a response to strategic decisions for the implementation of wind energy projects and to provide arguments to state that partnerships are indeed strategic. By making a comparison of the different roles of the actors involved in the sector and having a theoretical support created by a literature review of the subject, authors’ arguments are based on the analysis of six different perspectives from those actors in the wind energy arena: Utilities company, wind energy projects developers, government, financial institutions, international organization and consultants.</p><p>A qualitative approach guided the identification of the role of these wind energy participants as their perspective in the sector. Perspective cases were formed through interviews made to representatives of different actors and through secondary data.</p><p>Having an empirical approach, some wind energy projects and their involved partnerships were identified and analyzed. In addition, by analyzing the critical success factors of partnerships that influence crucial aspects for implementation of wind energy projects, it was confirmed that good partnerships are based on trust and their success is the result of establishing clear objectives and defining the roles and responsibilities of each partner. Besides, considerations regarding control management of partnership deployment among actors of the energy sector are suggested.</p><p>Latterly, it was uncovered that organizations sometimes do not recognize their relationships as partnerships, due to the bare understanding of the scope of <em>partnership </em>concept. In practice, partnership is conceived as a long-term relationship, while relationships for a limited time are commonly identified as contracts. However, it was concluded that in any case a partnership is developed, as partners gather their own expertise to achieve common goals.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>This research is meant to be a reference for decision-making individuals or project managers that need to evaluate ways to implement strategies. Also this study is conceived for those that need to decide if it is worthy to establish a partnership and its considerations, as a response to strategic decisions.</p><p> </p>

There are several participants in the renewable energy sector, each one having their own perspective, according to their interests. One renewable source of energy is wind. Development of wind energy projects is complex and implies the conjunction of several endeavors that are hard to be undertaken by only one organization. The complexity of wind energy projects demands the interaction among actors, that is, the creation of partnerships.   The purpose of this study is to question the nature of partnerships as a response to strategic decisions for the implementation of wind energy projects and to provide arguments to state that partnerships are indeed strategic. By making a comparison of the different roles of the actors involved in the sector and having a theoretical support created by a literature review of the subject, authors’ arguments are based on the analysis of six different perspectives from those actors in the wind energy arena: Utilities company, wind energy projects developers, government, financial institutions, international organization and consultants. A qualitative approach guided the identification of the role of these wind energy participants as their perspective in the sector. Perspective cases were formed through interviews made to representatives of different actors and through secondary data. Having an empirical approach, some wind energy projects and their involved partnerships were identified and analyzed. In addition, by analyzing the critical success factors of partnerships that influence crucial aspects for implementation of wind energy projects, it was confirmed that good partnerships are based on trust and their success is the result of establishing clear objectives and defining the roles and responsibilities of each partner. Besides, considerations regarding control management of partnership deployment among actors of the energy sector are suggested. Latterly, it was uncovered that organizations sometimes do not recognize their relationships as partnerships, due to the bare understanding of the scope of partnership concept. In practice, partnership is conceived as a long-term relationship, while relationships for a limited time are commonly identified as contracts. However, it was concluded that in any case a partnership is developed, as partners gather their own expertise to achieve common goals.     This research is meant to be a reference for decision-making individuals or project managers that need to evaluate ways to implement strategies. Also this study is conceived for those that need to decide if it is worthy to establish a partnership and its considerations, as a response to strategic decisions.

There often exist hard-to-identify or unforeseen external parties that emerge as indirect stakeholders of a project who can significantly influence its execution and outcome. The broader stakeholder landscape in both theory and practice recognizes the local community including other interest groups of a project site as such key stakeholders. However recent cases have revealed shortcomings in managing this category of stakeholders, leading to authoritative rejection of development permit applications and strong local opposition that consequently increase costs and delay to the project. There is indication that a weak community stakeholder management process in the planning stages can cause problems to the project, or worse, in some cases lead to project failure and abandonment by the developer. Wind energy development projects are not exempted from this condition and are possibly even more prone as they involve the erection of tall wind turbines across wide-open landscapes that are deemed controversial and unacceptable to a wider population. Endorsed by the persuasive rationale for wind energy especially in view of the environment and sustainable development, a more comprehensive and effective guidance for community stakeholder management in the planning stage is required to mitigate, if not eliminate, potential issues that can hinder the successful implementation of wind energy development projects. Hence this thesis primarily seeks to answer the research question of: “How should community stakeholders of wind energy development projects be managed in the planning stage prior to permit application?”. Using a qualitative approach to research through interviews with several industry practitioners and reviewing secondary data of industry best practices, policies, literature and case studies, 16 community stakeholder management key conclusion points could be made from research data collected. These points are individually important while in aggregate form a broad and novel framework that serves to further raise the awareness and readiness of wind energy development project managers in their community stakeholder management initiatives. A baseline list of community stakeholders and their common concerns were identified, together with suggested approaches to identify community stakeholders in each project. Community consultation is key to the process and engaging the community as widely and early as possible is recommended. Furthermore, key principles and an array of common methods for community stakeholder management in the planning stages of the project are presented, while acknowledging that not all stakeholders can be satisfied at each instance. Ultimately these findings were consolidated in a community consultation checklist that serves as a more systematic and practical tool in guiding project managers in their community stakeholder management initiatives during planning. The research findings herewith contribute valuable insights to the existing body of knowledge in this area and also provide enhanced practical guidance to project managers in achieving successful community stakeholder management during planning, facilitating higher acceptance for the proposal, carrying out a more efficient and effective planning process and improving the likelihood for project approval from both authoritative and judiciary standpoints.