The Scottish Government

This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007

Listen

Windfarms enjoy local support

24/08/2003

People living close to Scotland's 10 largest windfarms support more of the country's energy needs being produced from renewable sources, according to a survey by MORI Scotland commissioned by the Executive.

Deputy Enterprise Minister Lewis Macdonald drew attention to the overwhelming support among respondents (82%) for an increase in electricity generated from wind energy and welcomed the finding that more than 50% of respondents would support an increase in the number of wind turbines at their local windfarm.

The Executive is currently committed to generating 40% of electricity in Scotland from a variety of renewable sources - including wind, wave, hydro and biomass - by 2020.

Mr Macdonald said:

"The results contained within this report are extremely encouraging. The Scottish Executive is committed to increasing Scotland's renewable electricity generation, so it is particularly pleasing that the majority of those surveyed would back such an increase.

"This report confirms our earlier conclusions. Those people living closest to Scotland's windfarms who express an opinion are three times more likely to say that the windfarm has had a positive impact on their local area. Indeed, the majority of those surveyed would be in favour of increasing the number of turbines at their local windfarm by 50%.

"The report also finds that whilst some people anticipated problems with the windfarm prior to development, the numbers who actually experienced any problems were significantly lower once the windfarm began to operate. Indeed, more than 80% of respondents have not experienced any problems at all.

"It is clear that some people still have concerns about wind power. I believe however that today's findings demonstrate clear support for our policies.

"This commitment to increase our use of renewable energy will take account of a number of sources - wind power will play a role, but so will wave, tidal, hydro and biomass.

"We will continue working hard to ensure that individuals and communities across Scotland share in the economic and environmental benefits renewable energy can bring."

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/enterprise/energy

MORI Scotland was commissioned in February 2003 to undertake a study examining the attitudes of people living close to windfarms in Scotland. The new research focused on those windfarms with nine or more turbines, of which there were ten operational in Scotland at the end of 2002.

This study followed on from an earlier survey, the results of which were published in August 2000. This survey was later withdrawn when inaccuracies surrounding data collected from interviewees was discovered at one of the four sites. The more comprehensive MORI survey was commissioned to replace this data.

A total of 1,810 adults aged 18+ were interviewed by telephone between February 27 and March 18 this year. All respondents lived within a 20 km zone of the windfarms. The survey obtained results that are representative of people living within three zones (up to 5 km of a windfarm, 5-10 km and 10-20 km), and are representative of people living within 20 km of each of the ten windfarms.

The main findings include:

• Three times the number of residents say that their local windfarm has had a broadly positive impact on the area (20%) as say that it has had a negative impact (7%). Most people feel that it has had neither a positive nor a negative impact.

• People who lived in their homes before the windfarm was developed say that, in advance of the windfarm development, they thought that problems might be caused by its impact on the landscape (27%), traffic during construction (19%) and noise during construction (15%). By comparison, since the windfarm development, only 12% are concerned about the impact on the landscape,, 6% say that during construction there were problems with additional traffic, and 4% say there was noise or disturbance during construction .

• There is substantial support for the idea of enlarging existing windfarm sites among those who live close to them, particularly if the increase in the number of turbines involves the addition of no more than 50% of the existing number. A majority (54%) would support an expansion of their local windfarm by half the number of turbines again, while one in eleven is opposed (9%).

• While many say that they feel that nuclear, coal and oil generation should be reduced, clear majorities favour increasing the proportion of electricity generated through wave (69%) and wind energy (82%). Although around a third say they do not know what the Scottish Executive's policy is regarding these methods of electricity generation, the most common views are that the use of wind energy is to be increased (66% believe this is the Scottish Executive's policy), as is wave energy (52%). Many believe that coal (46%), nuclear (44%) and oil-fired generation (35%) are to be reduced.