Jonah Goldman Peake

South Burlington Solar Project

Qingbin Wang, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Community Development & Applied Economics
University of Vermont
phone: (802) 656-4564, fax: (802) 656-1423
email: qwang@uvm.edu

 

Recently there has been a proposal to build the largest solar field in Vermont. This proposition calls for 40 acres of land in South Burlington, enough for the construction of 380 solar tracker panels. This array will produce enough energy to power 400 Vermont homes. Once constructed this power station will be largely maintenance free, even removing snow on its own.

Though this may sound like great idea to most, it’s important to have a better understanding of the general public feelings and the feelings of the residences in the surrounding area. The get a better understanding of this, residence must be surveyed. They are asked a variety of questions ranging from general demographics, feelings about the placement of the South Burlington solar field, to feelings about paying slightly more per kWh for renewably generated power.

Assigned to the general demographic portion of this project I was in charge of writing survey questions to get a better understanding of who the residence in the surrounding area were. Though, I would learn that wording is very critical. For example a surveyor might get slightly different results when asking: How old are you? Vs what year were you born? Subtle wording changes can produce very different results. Luckily the US Census was conducting their surveys and I was able to use their information as a reference when creating my portion of the survey.

Here is what I had come up with:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is your sex?
_ M
_ F

What year were you born? _____

What is the highest level of education you have completed?
_ Less than high school graduate
_ High school graduate or equivalent
_ Some college or associates
_ Bachelor's degree
_ Graduate or professional degree

What is your employment status?
_Full time
_Part time
Occupation (please specify)__________________________

What is your own yearly income?
_ Less than $25,000
_ $25,000-$34,999
_ $35,000-$49,999
_ $50,000-$74,999
_ $75,000-$100,000
_ More than $100,000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is your current marital status?
_ Now married
_ Widowed
_ Divorced
_ Separated
_ Never married

What is your race?
_ American Indian or Alaska Native
_ Asian
_ African American
_ Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander
_ White
_ Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin