Attitudes Towards the Visual Impact and Community Acceptability of Wind Farms in Australia and Britain: Findings from Three Surveys

The paper summarises three studies of the visual impact of wind farms in Australia and Britain and draws findings from them that have applications in the establishment of wind farms and in future policies and research. The paper provides information about the global growth and scale of wind farms and then summarises the literature regarding their visual impact, planning for wind farms, guidelines, and the psychology of attitudes. The characteristics of the three surveys are described and their results are presented, covering the visual impact of wind farms on landscape ratings and the acceptability of wind farms. The threshold of acceptability, the influence of familiarity and of proximity to wind farms on ratings are examined together with the influence of environmental and wind farm factors on ratings. Significant findings from the three surveys are discussed. There are four novel features of this paper: first, it compares the visual impacts of wind farms across several countries using the same methodology; second, it assesses the acceptability of wind farms as perceived by residents in these countries; third, it identifies the enhancement that wind farms can provide in landscapes of low landscape quality; and fourth, it identifies a gap in the attitudes towards wind farms between elected and non-elected members of councils.