Survey of the Visual Impacts and Acceptability to Councillors of Wind Farms in Britain Dr Andrew Lothian Scenic Solutions 2020
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SURVEY OF THE VISUAL IMPACTS AND ACCEPTABILITY TO COUNCILLORS OF WIND FARMS IN BRITAIN DR ANDREW LOTHIAN SCENIC SOLUTIONS 2020 1 Lothian, A., 2020. Survey of the visual impacts and acceptability to councillors of wind farms in Britain . Scenic Solutions, Adelaide, Australia. 106 pp. The report of the project may be downloaded from the following website: www.scenicsolutions.world/projects © Scenic Solutions 39B Marion Street, Unley, Adelaide, South Australia, 5061 E: [email protected] M: 0439 872 226 I: www.scenicsolutions.world Cover photo: Trysglwyn Wind farm, Angelsey, Wales i Survey of the visual impacts and acceptability to councillors of wind farms in Britain SURVEY OF THE VISUAL IMPACTS AND ACCEPTABILITY TO COUNCILLORS OF WIND FARMS IN BRITAIN EXECUTIVE SUMMARY KEY FINDINGS • Compared with the English and Welsh, Scottish respondents gave the highest ratings of scenes without wind farms and the lowest ratings of scenes with wind farms. • Of the English respondents, 63% found wind farms acceptable, but in Wales the figure was 49% and in Scotland, 34%. This suggests that the threshold of acceptability of wind farms has been passed in Scotland and is approaching it for Wales. A causation factor may be the high density of wind farms in Scotland, nearly four times that of England. • The highest proportion opposed to wind farms was in north and south Scotland, both around 55%. • While 70% of local councillors and 61% of county councillors strongly supported wind farms, only 41% of staff was in favour. • While 12% of local councillors and 7% of county councillors opposed wind farms, 31% of staff opposed them. • While both local and county councillors generally found wind farms acceptable, many of staff rated the wind farms as very unacceptable; 33% of the staff found them very unacceptable compared with 11% of county councillors and 9% of local councillors. • The respondent’s attitudes towards wind farms, whether positive or negative, shaped their ratings of scenes with and without wind farms. Those opposed to wind farms rated scenes without them the highest and scenes with them, the lowest, a difference in ratings of nearly 6. Conversely for those in favour of wind farms, the difference in rating was only 0.6. This conclusively showed that attitudes affect ratings. • Attitudes toward wind farms also shaped their acceptability by respondents, with those in favour finding most wind farms acceptable while those against them finding virtually all wind farms unacceptable. INTRODUCTION has been the dominant objection to wind farm proposals. Wind farms have become a key renewable The author has completed two previous energy source of electricity in Britain with studies of the visual impact of wind farms a large number of wind farms onshore and in Australia, and in 2019, the opportunity offshore. In 2018, wind power contributed arose to carry out a similar project in the 18% of the total electricity generation in UK. United Kingdom compared with 14% for Europe. The objectives of the project were threefold: A significant issue is their likely impact on the landscape – their visual impact. This 1. To assess the attitudes of councillors and senior council staff in Britain Dr Andrew Lothian, Scenic Solutions Page i Survey of the visual impacts and acceptability to councillors of wind farms in Britain regarding the visual impacts of wind 2. Following construction and operation, farms and their acceptability; opposition tends to dwindle as the 2. To determine whether a threshold of impacts are found to be not as severe acceptability can be derived from the as feared and residents become more survey; positive about them. 3. To derive a predictive model of the visual impact of wind farms in Britain. 3. The presence of existing wind farms can facilitate the acceptance of DIMENSIONS OF WIND FARMS IN additional proposals. BRITAIN 4. Opposition declines with distance from Global wind power has grown from 24 GW turbines. in 2001 to 591 GW in 2018. In Britain, there were 29 onshore wind farms in 5. Wind farms should not be located in 2000, by 2019 there were 753. In 2018 highly valued landscapes. wind energy provided 18% of UK electricity. 6. Early open involvement of the community with proposals and trans- The size of wind turbine has grown from parency and provision of information 50 m in total height in the 1980s to over by the developer are pre-requisites for 160 m now with older smaller structures a successful outcome. being replaced by larger ones. Their generating capacity has grown accord- 7. There is some evidence for nearby ingly, from 0.4 MW in the early 1990s to 3 wind farms affecting property values. MW+ in 2019. 8. Tourism appear to be largely unaffect- In contrast to Australia where wind farms ed by the presence of wind farms and are large with dozens of turbines, wind indeed they can become an attraction farms in Britain tend to be small – 10 in their own right. turbines or less is common, with only a few very large wind farms. 9. Support outweighs the opposition by a large margin. Community support for Since 2016, UK local government renewable energy in general and wind authorities have the power to consider and farms in particular is very high, around approve wind farms providing the site has 80%, with opposition very low. been identified as suitable and the community impacts have been addressed. 10. Attitudes towards renewable energy and wind farms shape an individual’s The UK targets are 15% of energy from attitude towards particular wind farms. renewables by 2020, and 30% of electricity from renewables by 2020. It 11. Offshore locations are favoured over failed to achieve the first target but has onshore sites. achieved the second, with 39% electricity coming from renewables, including wind. 12. People with a strong environmental ethic favour wind farms no matter VISUAL IMPACTS OF WIND FARMS what. A comprehensive country by country 13. The community needs to have regard review of studies of the visual impacts of to the bigger picture of climate change wind farms is provided. and the need to reduce greenhouse emissions. Key findings were the following: The author’s 2003 and 2018 studies of the 1. Of all the perceived impacts of wind visual impacts of wind farms in the farms, their visual impact dominates. Australian landscape are summarised. Dr Andrew Lothian, Scenic Solutions Page ii Survey of the visual impacts and acceptability to councillors of wind farms in Britain The concept of thresholds of visual impact excluded from the survey. A total of is examined using the standardized mean 15.897 councillors were surveyed plus 539 difference formula. senior staff; total 16,436. The survey commenced on 30 September and ended ACQUIRING THE DATA 58 days later on 26 November, 2019. The location of wind farms in Britain was DATA ANALYSIS ascertained. With time for photography limited to two weeks, travel to photograph Data management wind farms commenced on 31 March, and concluded on 12 April, 2019. The area The survey attracted 806 respondents covered was all of England, southern which is 4.74% of the invitations sent out. Scotland and Wales. Rain prevented most The responses comprised 53% local photography in Wales. councils, 22% county councils and 25% senior staff. Response from country Photographs were spliced together to councils were three times that of local cover the extent of wind farms. Haze and councils and the highest response was distracting elements were removed from from staff with 37% of all responses. the scenes. A total of 526 completed all 46 scenes and Survey scenes 23 failed to rate any. This left a net of 783 respondents which provided a confidence The survey comprised 23 scenes with interval of 0.035, much better than the turbines and the same 23 scenes with the benchmark 0.05 level. turbines removed, a total of 46 scenes. Of these, 2 were nearby, 10 middle distance Strategic bias where the respondent and 11 farther distance. Around 65% of attempts to use the survey for their own the wind farms contained 1 – 15 turbines, ends was assessed. Although 31 and there were four wind farms with more respondents rated all scenes without wind than 20 turbines. Nine each were on flat or farms as 10 and 32 respondents rated all undulating terrain, and 5 were on hills. scenes with wind farms as 1, the effect on Eleven of the scenes had thin or scattered the overall mean, though statistically cloud, and 6 had full sun and 6 had thick significant, was minimal, 0.14 – 0.17, and cloud. There were 18 scenes with turbines was ignored. in full sun, and 5 where they were in shadow. The smaller wind farms tended to Histograms and QQ plots showed that the be nearby while the larger wind farms distributions exhibited normality. Sixteen were at greater distances. of the scenes comprised 2 photos stitched together and 7 scenes comprised 4 – 5 Participation in survey photos, however the difference in rating these was not significant. The average Councillors in district and county councils, time to complete the survey was 21.6 along with senior staff were selected as minutes (SD 9.6 min). survey participants given Councils’ authority to approve wind farms, their Demographic characteristics interest in public issues, their links with the community, and their willingness to give of A total of 59% of respondents were male their own time to the community. and 41% female. Only 12% were younger than 45 years. Staff had a slightly younger England has 326 district councils; profile than councillors. Both councillors Scotland 32 and Wales 22. In England, and staff were well qualified, with 52% of 317 councils were surveyed, Scotland 27 county councillors, 59% of local and Wales 21.