Abstract
Community engagement in energy development is increasingly recognized as critical to align project design choices with the needs and perspectives of affected communities. However, offshore wind (OSW) development along the U.S. West Coast has often seen engagement efforts that are inconsistent, delayed, or disconnected from local decision-making. This study advances theoretical and applied understanding of public participation in energy planning by developing a framework for community-centered engagement tailored to the governance and socio-political contexts of OSW. We integrate insights from a literature review, a community inventory, and 25 semi-structured interviews with experts from government agencies, developers, consultants, Tribal representatives, NGOs, and research institutions. The framework aligns the OSW project lifecycle with the spectrum of public participation, accounting for timing, institutional roles, and place-based contexts. It moves beyond general best practices by offering a structured yet adaptable guide to improve engagement strategies, coordination, and credibility. This work synthesizes participation and governance theory with energy transition scholarship, demonstrating how engagement frameworks can serve as boundary-spanning tools to connect top-down policy imperatives with community expectations, values, and capacities. It also provides developers, agencies, practitioners, and local actors with actionable guidance to anticipate and navigate engagement challenges in OSW deployment. Grounded in empirical findings and situated within real-world planning and permitting systems, the framework offers conceptual and applied insights into the social dimensions of energy system transformation.