Scottish Natural Heritage has published ‘Visual Assessment of Wind Farms: Best Practice’ to offer advice and guidance on assessing the visual impact of wind farm developments.

Wind Turbines & the Landscape

How wind turbines look is a subjective issue. Some people like the look of wind turbines and others don’t. A landscape and visual assessment is included within the Environmental Impact Assessment accompanying a planning application. The aim of this assessment is to investigate how the wind energy proposal will appear in the landscape from key viewpoints. A developer should work closely with the relevant statutory consul tees to review the visual impact of their proposals.

For visual impact assessment the relevant statutory consul tees are: Natural England – statutory consul tee in England Scottish Natural Heritage – statutory consul tee in Scotland Countryside Council for Wales – statutory consul tee in Wales The starting point is to agree what the key viewpoints are. Key viewpoints can be selected for many reasons and they can include picnic spots, tourist attractions, key roads, populated areas, historic buildings and viewpoints where key local landmarks and the proposed development together can be viewed together. Once the viewpoints are agreed the proposal will be assessed from the viewpoints and alterations recommended if possible or necessary. The visual impact will be assessed along with the other findings of the Environmental Impact Assessment once the planning application is submitted and all consul tees will get the chance to comment prior to a planning decision being made.

Planning and the EIA Process

Identify Potential Sites Modern wind turbines, like many other land uses such as offices and shopping complexes, need to be located in areas where they are both viable and any effects on the local area are acceptable. Although finding suitable locations for wind turbines does not require, for example, the detailed socio-economic analysis needed for assessing whether a shopping complex would undermine the vitality of a town centre. However sites for wind turbines do need four key attributes:

  1. Sufficient wind to make the site financially viable;
  2. A connection point to some electricity lines so that power can be taken from the site;
  3. Roads of sufficient width so that the turbines can be delivered; and
  4. A willing landowner with sufficient space for the turbines to be built.