Wind Power
Sut mae datblygiadau fferm wynt yn effeithio ar y dirwedd
The issue of climate change and the need for the United Kingdom to move towards renewable energy is one of the most controversial affecting the Cambrian Mountains.
Many people are passionate about landscape, as a source of inspiration, as a setting for the production of food, as daily surroundings or a place to “get away from it all”. Wind energy developments affect people’s perception of landscape: modern wind turbines are generally large structures with the potential to have significant landscape and visual impacts. Although wind energy has been harnessed for centuries, recent technological advancement has seen turbine size rapidly increase. Wind turbines of between 100 – 150m high can be visible at distances of up to 40 or 50km in some conditions; single turbines of up to 50m high are visible at smaller distances.
The development of wind farms, including associated infrastructure such as tracks, power-lines and ancillary buildings, has already had a major impact on many of Wales’ landscapes.
People’s responses to wind farms vary. To some a wind farm may seem to 0ver-dominate its surroundings, while others may view it as an exciting, modern addition with symbolic associations with clean energy and sustainability. A wind farm’s impacts on local residents will be different from that upon visitors as, unlike visitors, residents will experience a wind farm from different locations, at different times of the day, usually for longer periods of time, and in different seasons. On the other hand, impacts on tourists and those taking part in recreation may be relatively brief, but their sensitivity to landscape change is often high because their essential purpose for being in the area is to enjoy their surroundings.
The visibility and visual impacts of a wind farm are affected by the distance and context from which it is viewed, as well as other aspects such as its siting and context. A wind farm will be experienced differently from surrounding roads than from recreational routes or from a remote mountaintop. The first glimpse is important. Further, as larger numbers of wind farms are built it has become increasingly important to consider their cumulative effects and the context in which they are seen.
As a result, landscape scale and openness are particularly important characteristics to be taken into account in relation to siting wind turbines because large wind turbines or groups of them can easily seem to dominate open landscapes with long vistas, such as the plateaux making up the various segments of the Cambrian Mountains
A person standing on Garn Gron, in the centre of the Elenydd, can today see clear to Cader Idris in Snowdonia in the North, to Pen-y-fan in the Brecon Beacons to the South, as well as over to the coastline in the West and Hay Bluff in the East.
The Cambrian Mountains Society is deeply concerned about the impact the siting of wind farms within these uplands could have on the integrity of a treasured landscape. A large wind farm – either as to height or number of turbines – can have a substantial effect even on distant skylines given the open landscapes and long distance views. As a minimum, a wind farm interrupts the simplicity of the skyline, and may dominate the visible extent of the skyline. Areas of wild land character such as these uplands are very sensitive to any form of intrusive human activity and have little or no capacity to accept new development. Wind farms would be out of character and, precisely because of the openness, tranquillity and simplicity of the landscape, the scope for mitigating impacts is limited. We can have wild, open uplands or wind farms. It is not possible to fudge the issue and have ‘a bit of both’.
For this reason, the Cambrian Mountains Society consider the area ill-suited to accommodate wind farm development, both horizontally and vertically. Any turbines placed high on the open plateau will affect the perception of the landscape as a whole not only in the immediate vicinity but over many miles. The experience of space, openness and tranquillity which these uplands convey would be only too easily destroyed by the placing of large turbines or large groups of smaller turbines, anywhere within the upland region.