Reducing emissions to combat climate change requires the rapid deployment of renewable energy. In many countries, the power to site these are in the hands of local governments. Yet, we know little about how this political decentralization shapes the siting of renewable energy developments. Building on the premise that local politicians are responsive to the preferences of their own electorate, this article develops and tests a new theoretical model of how local governments site energy developments. The key outcome of the model is a prediction about where voters will approve of new wind turbine construction. The model predictions are evaluated on a new and granular dataset on the siting of all wind turbines in Denmark from 2007 to 2021. The analysis provides strong support for the theoretical model. Building on these findings, we argue that political decentralization may hurt both efficiency and the perceived democratic legitimacy of the transition to a zero carbon economy, as local officials have no incentive to optimize energy efficiency and disregard potential nuisances for those in adjoining municipalities.