Solar Farm or Salt Wetland? Applying a Contingent Valuation Method to Determine Willingness to Pay for Cigu's Salt Pans

＂Green conflict＂ means the conflict between renewable energy development and preservation of natural resources. Cigu, a rural district in the southwest of Taiwan, faces a green conflict between ground-mounted solar power plants installations and wetlands. This research is an attempt to address how people evaluate the unused salt pans and how much they are willing to pay to preserve unused salt pans. The contingent valuation method (CVM) is used to elicit the willingness to pay (WTP) for unused salt pans. The results showed that average WTP of Cigu's respondents was higher than that of the respondents in Tainan City. The result indicates the existence of active local advocates. Age, education, and location were the three factors that had significant impacts on WTP in the Tobit regression. Determining how to balance renewable energy development and natural resource preservation is one of the main tasks a government needs to accomplish during the energy transition.