Ground-truthing: Why people’s lived experience matters for a “just” energy transition

As the U.K. pushes forward with its net zero goals, we must seize the opportunity to ensure that the energy transition works for everyone. Our social impact expert, Dr. Eva Kleinert, explores how “ground-truthing” the many impacts of new energy infrastructure is a vital step in earning public trust, avoiding delays, sharing benefits and delivering fairer outcomes for communities.

As the global transition to clean energy accelerates, the conversation often centres on carbon, cost and kilowatts. But beneath these metrics lies a vital human layer: the actual effect of major infrastructure initiatives on the day-to-day lives, livelihoods and futures of local people and businesses. 

Understanding how new infrastructure and the shift to low-carbon energy generation affects communities is not simply a “nice-to-have” for policymakers and developers — it’s a necessity. As one of the U.K.’s leading experts in planning and consenting, we know this firsthand. 

Ground-truthing: Because lived experience matters 

At the heart of understanding these impacts is the concept of “ground-truthing”. Put simply, it means going beyond desk-based assessments and statutory consultation to systematically collect evidence directly from the people, places and communities an asset will affect. 

In the energy sector, it means giving lived experience the same attention and weight as technical models and forecasts. It means asking communities not just what they think, but why and how their experience compares against any predicted impacts.  

This approach echoes both the U.K. government’s 2024 Community Engagement Principles, which emphasizes diverse voices and proportional, transparent engagement, and the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) Design Group’s focus on people and places as core design principles for nationally significant infrastructure.

In this article, we draw on our own experience of conducting interviews, workshops and surveys with the public to show how engaging directly with impacted communities and businesses is vital. 

The new “lived experience” focus. Why now? 

Increasingly, three key drivers are pushing sponsors and policymakers to ground-truth proposals earlier and more rigorously. 

The first surrounds the scale and pace of the energy transition. In its Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, the U.K. government sets out its ambition of generating 43-50 gigawatts  of offshore wind, 27-29 gigawatts of onshore wind, and 45-47 gigawatts of solar power. This is in addition to the goal of increasing nuclear capacity to 24 gigawatts by 2050, supported by the launch of the Great British Energy – Nuclear (GBE-N) agency to drive new projects. Both are designed to significantly reduce fossil-fuel dependency. This transition will require faster, more strategic engagement with stakeholders and communities both offshore and onshore. 

The second echoes the pace of change as networks keep up with generation. National Grid’s Great Grid Upgrade spans 17 major projects; in turn, the government has moved to formalise community benefits such as bill discounts near new transmission after social research found this improves acceptability. 

The third concerns policy reform around social licence. England’s July 8, 2024 policy statement removed the special “community support” tests that had constrained onshore wind since 2015, and Whitehall is updating guidance so that local communities benefit from hosting renewables — shifting the engagement conversation from if to how, and on what terms. 

These shifts align with proposed reforms under the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which seek to strengthen pre-application consultation and ensure earlier, more meaningful engagement with communities. 

At the same time, whilst public support for renewables remains as high as 80 per cent in spring 2025, views and acceptance vary by technology, region and age — another strong reason to ground-truth local concerns and benefits early. 

The forgotten pillar: social impact 

Historically, the social dimension of energy infrastructure has not received the same scrutiny as the economic and environmental aspects. The economic and environmental metrics dominate business cases and policy frameworks, often considering only what can be quantified or monetised. In contrast, social dimensions (trust, fairness, inclusion, wellbeing) are often addressed late or superficially, leading to opposition, delays, and missed opportunities for a ‘just’ transition. 

In September 2025, the U.K. Government Office for Science released a report highlighting that accelerating grid transformation is not just a technical challenge but also a societal one. It notes that social aspects have often been underexplored compared with technical and economic considerations. It observes that despite people’s reactions and trust issues posing risks comparable to cost and supply chain failures, social science evidence is still rarely integrated early into infrastructure planning. 

Yet whilst metrics such as job creation or growth can estimate socioeconomic impacts, they fail to capture public sentiment at a grassroots level: fear of losing access to local services, anxiety about energy reliability, and scepticism about who really benefits from new developments. 

Fortunately, that’s changing. From our own social impact assessment work, we see that developers and policymakers are recognising that understanding social impacts is more than just good governance. When communities are ignored, projects stall. When people are listened to, negative impacts can be mitigated, and benefits shared more widely. 

Stronger national frameworks that empower local implementation — through resourcing, guidance and flexibility — will also be key to closing the gap.

Understanding people’s lived experiences

Effective social impact assessments go far beyond “tick-box” consultation. Much of our work involves representative research: large-scale surveys, local focus groups, and deliberative methods that level the information playing field. Participants are given clear, evidence-based information — for instance how much energy a solar farm can generate, what the footprint of a nuclear power plant is or how a wind turbine is transported — and then asked to reflect on how this has impacted them, or share concern about future impacts. 

And these aren’t just “yes” or “no” sessions. We explore what drives concern, what builds acceptance, and how perceptions shift with better understanding. Crucially, they involve everyone — not just the most vocal. 

It’s important to remember that we’re not there to influence opinions, we’re there to capture and understand them. That includes fears, both rational and irrational. They may be emotional, practical or financial. 

Ground-truthing challenges assumptions about the social impacts by revealing gaps between projected and perceived benefits of large-scale developments. It also uncovers unintended consequences, like pressure on local services or transport infrastructure such as ferries and roads, especially during construction phases. 

Social impact assessment in action 

Most importantly, ground-truthing really works. In a recent research report we authored for the Scottish government, we explored the social and economic impacts of offshore wind energy on coastal communities across Scotland. Supporting the Socio-Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA) for the updated Sectoral Marine Plan, our research includes a comprehensive social impact consultation. Our robust ground-truthing process provided: 

• Community engagement and transparent dialogue. Using deliberative focus groups in five coastal locations (Lewis, Orkney, Buckie, Dundee, Stonehaven) with 44 participants, we explored local views on jobs, distributional impacts, services, tourism/recreation, and sociocultural/health effects. This ensured place-based, structured dialogue against a shared evidence pack. 

• A level playing field for information. Participants received information packs derived from the then draft SEIA; our team also ran a pre-deliberation survey — explicitly designed to test how views evolve when participants can interrogate the evidence (and to highlight any gaps or misunderstandings in the desk-based assessment). 

• Findings that directly inform a “just” transition to net zero. Across groups, people emphasised the need for local employment and upskilling, concern about benefits “leaking” to nonlocal labour, and the value of Community Benefit Funds; women and underrepresented groups were flagged as at risk of exclusion from new green jobs unless training routes are inclusive. These insights map onto “just” transition tests now used in Scotland. 

• Influence on the plan evidence base. The Government’s SEIA (May 30, 2025) notes social impacts and cumulative effects alongside the desk-based plan research; our exercise fed lived experience evidence into that process and the public consultation on the Draft Updated Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy. 

This is a clear example of how ground-truthing can be used to test, refine and communicate a strategic (plan level) assessment for major projects, from consultation events to deliberative, evidence-led dialogue. 

Ground-truthing means working with people, not just for them 

Understanding social impact isn’t about changing what people think or experience, it’s about capturing concerns, mitigating negative impacts and maximising benefits. That doesn’t necessarily mean compensation or building a new community centre. Instead, this is about long-term social planning: helping to build resilient communities and local economies by providing access to reskilling programmes, offering employment opportunities, and investing in or funding community organisations. 

Done correctly, this approach doesn’t just reduce opposition; it also creates genuine value. It helps deliver a just transition — one where people feel the benefits of net zero. 

In summary. If we’re serious about a fair and just energy transition, we need to pay attention to a community’s lived experience. And that starts with listening. 

If you’re keen to learn more about the energy transition, click here for more content.