Living with Wind Turbines

In this coming decade the Northern Ireland Executive aims to maximisethe amount of electricity generated from renewable sources in orderto enhance the diversity and security of energy supply, reduce carbonemissions. This report consider the impacts of renewable methods of electricity generation in Northern Ireland (NI) and the level of acceptance of this infrastructure by communities where the technology is located. In relation to assessing community views on wind energy generation,the research carried out in this study focuses on the perceptions ofenvironmental quality by the residents of two neighbourhoods, onesituated within 3km of an operational wind farm site and the othersituated within 3 km of a proposed wind farm site.The research findings indicate that the presence of wind turbines hadlittle impact on the resident’s perception of their neighbourhood as bothsites rated their area as ‘good’ or ‘very good’.At the operational site respondents reported,in an average of 85.6% of cases, that they were not affected at all by the wind farm, in relation to the issues of main concern, visual impact, damage to the environment and negative impact on property prices.This study found that respondents were generally strongly in favour ofenergy generation by renewable technologies, including wind power withsupport being stronger at the site that is operational rather than theproposed wind farm site. The majority of respondents from both areas alsoconsidered wind turbines to be an effective method of generating electricity.