Wind Power: A Blot On The Landscape?

Wind energy is one part of a larger solution to solving the world wide energy crisis. However, as with all new developments, there are costs as well as benefits. In the case of wind farm development it seems that there is little real evidence to substantiate some of the claims for or against it. The research for this paper raises, not only issues specifically about economic value effects but the broader debate around social and community impacts. Previous work by the authors has concentrated on the impact of proximate wind farms on house prices. It has focused on one or two areas of the UK which had particular characteristics in terms of economic activity, tourism, proximity to coast etc. The authors have now extended this work in several ways. First, they have tested to see if these areas are likely to be representative of the whole country. Further studies of other regions where wind farms have been built have been considered. Second, there is a view that the impact of the wind farm is actually not significant in terms of house prices when located beyond one mile. There does, however, appear to be more of an effect on the market (and therefore potentially prices) where there are wind farm proposals being considered. This study seeks to explore this issue further. Finally, their work examines impacts less to do with property values and more related to community values.