The Relative Importance of Landscape Amenity and Health Impacts in the Wind Farm Debate in Australia

Abstract

In recent years, Australia has experienced public debate around the growth in wind farms as part of government and community strategies to move from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Many of the arguments put forward by opponents and supporters are similar to those that have been evident in North America and Western Europe, including possible environmental impacts on wildlife, noise levels and, perhaps most prominently adverse changes in ‘landscape amenity’. A concern of increasing prominence is that of adverse human health impacts from proximity to operating turbines. Using analysis of submissions to public inquiries and a small number of detailed interviews, we consider the increased focus in Australia on the health impacts of wind farms. We note that health impacts, as elsewhere in the world, are often part of a suite of objections to wind farm developments but conclude that for some people near such developments, these are the main concern and not a cover or proxy for other concerns, such as changes in landscape amenity and aesthetics.

Key Words:

• wind farms
• land use conflict
• Australia

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the interviewees who welcomed us into their communities and their homes and gave so generously of their time in sharing their stories of the impact of wind farms on their lives. We would also like to thank Shannon Clark for her comments on the draft paper.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported under Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects funding scheme [project number DP140100311].