Visual & Economic Impacts of Tall Wind Turbines

Abstract

Technological advancements in wind turbine design have led to taller, more efficient turbines that are capable of producing more electricity. This means that developers can install fewer wind turbines and achieve the same or more generation capacity for a project. However, these changes will also affect the visual and economic impacts of wind projects, which are two factors that strongly influence the community acceptance of these deployments. Therefore, a choice experiment survey was designed to better understand how these visual and economic impacts change with the new generation of taller wind turbines. Here, we report on our methodology for the design and pre-test of an online survey that could be deployed nationwide to better understand preferences related to the visual and economic impacts of tall turbines. The survey utilizes a set of visual representations that display hypothetical wind turbine arrangements, dimensions, and calculated individual- and community-level economic compensation scenarios.