Land-use planning poses a significant barrier to the further development of on-shore wind energy in many countries. There has been increasing discussion regarding the use of public participation in the planning process in order to address concerns of local residents and ease conflicts. This research explores the dynamics of the planning process for wind energy in England, Wales and Denmark in order to better understand the factors influencing project success. Through 18 in-depth case studies, it investigates the degree of local community participation in the planning process and the stability of the network of individuals and organisations involved in the project to determine their relationship to the public's acceptance of the project and the planning outcome. The study draws on the frameworks of public participation in planning and actor-network theories in order to develop indicators of the level of community involvement and network formation for each case. The analysis discusses predictions made by the theoretical approaches as to the importance of these variables to the success of new projects. The results indicate that projects with high levels of participatory planning are more likely to be publicly accepted and successful. In addition, stable supporting networks are more likely to form. The presence of a stable network of supporters is not found to be related to project acceptance and success; however, the absence of a stable network of opponents is found to be necessary for project acceptance and success in receiving planning permission. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.