i

A critical review of ‘Landowner’s perceptions on

wind turbines in Ireland’.

Gavin Stanley

10334137

B.Agr.Sc Degree in Agriculture and Environmental

Science

Supervisor: Dr. John Fry

Date of Submission 1st May 2014

ii

Table of Contents

Page

Acknowledgements iii

Disclaimer iii

List of Tables iv

List of Figures iv

Definitions v

Abbreviations vi

Abstract 1

Introduction 2

History 5

The need for renewable energy 6

Problems with wind turbines in Ireland 7

Aims and Objectives 9

Methods 10

Results and Discussion 11

Wind turbines positives and negatives 15

Environment 17

Economics 18

Placement 20

General comparisons 23

Conclusions and Recommendations 25

References 27

Appendix 31

iii

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. John Fry for taking me on with this project, and the help and

experience he has given me the past months, for both the presentation and the project itself.

Also to all the people who gave me their time to fill in my surveys, and their honest opinions

with their views. I would also like to acknowledge that different results could have been

received from different people.

Disclaimer

I hereby declare that the material in this project is my own, except of where it is indicated and

referenced accordingly.

Gavin Stanley

Signed:

Date:

iv

List of Tables

Page

Table 1: Results of Question 18 16

Table 2: Short questions and results 36

Table 3: Short questions and results 37

Table 4: Question 4 answers 37

Table 5: Question 12 answers 38

Table 6: Question 17 answers 39

Table 7: Question 21 answers 40

List of figures

Figure 1: CO2 Rise prediction. 3

Figure 2: Pie chart showing proportions of renewable energy sector in Ireland 2012 5

Figure 3a: Distribution of participants at provincial range 12

Figure 3b: The Distribution of participants in the Leinster area. 12

Figure 4: The ages on the respondents. 13

Figure 5: Distance from closest wind farm. 13

Figure 6: Pie chart. Do respondents ‘care’ for the environment? 17

Figure 7: Histogram showing Participant compensation expectation/ turbine/ year 18

Figure 8: Participants preferred wind turbine placement. 21

v

Definitions

Renewable energy- An energy resource that that is naturally regenerated over a

short time scale.

Climate change- A global or regional change of climate patterns, where the

weather becomes more extreme, due to human activity of

high fossil fuel use, and its emissions entering the

atmosphere.

Green-house effect- An atmospheric process that causes a warmer climate by

trapping the suns energy.

Shadow flicker- This is the flicker of light, caused by the rotating blades.

vi

Abbreviations List

CH4 Methane

CO2 Carbon Dioxide

CFC Chlorofluorocarbons

DCENR Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.

EIA Environmental Impact assessment.

EPA Environmental Protection Agency

EU European Union

GDP Gross Domestic Product

GHG Green House Gases

IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

IWEA Irish Wind Energy Association

km Kilometres

MW Mega-watts

ppm Parts per million

PWE Professional work experience

REFIT Renewable energy feed in tariff

SEAI Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland

SEI Sustainable Energy Ireland

UCD University College Dublin

UK United Kingdom

USA United States of America

1

Abstract

This is a survey mainly focused on reviewing land owner’s perceptions of wind turbines on

their land, and to a lesser extent renewable energy where according to the Sustainable Energy

authority of Ireland (SEAI) ‘Renewable energy resources are abundantly available in

Ireland’. In the last ten years in Ireland, there has been a sudden surge in wind farms being

erected all over the country, and with E.U. (European Union) renewable energy targets to be

met, being 20% energy from renewable resources by 2020, 1100 extra wind turbines are

predicted to be mounted in the Irish country side to meet these targets.

The problem with these developments and what this research project is based on is there are

currently at the moment many problems all over the country due to this, with local

communities protesting where these large machines will be placed. The purpose of this

project is to get a general feel of what are the land owner’s views for these projects, and why

there are such problems at the moment.

It was thought the best way to approach this was a simple survey that was constructed from

scratch and that was easy to understand for the land owner, as due to governments having

policies to be met; a lot of wind farm proposals will have the likely hood of going through so

it is important to have them right.

With this, the questions that this report finds important will be asked to the respondents, and

also the aim is to inform them of an area that they may be unsure of, as this is an area that the

author of this project is very interested in.

.

2

Introduction

“It’s very important to understand that climate change is not just another issue in this

complicated world of proliferating issues. Climate change is the issue which,

unchecked, will swamp all other issues” – Ross Gelbspan.

The area of renewable energy is currently becoming a very important issue both nationally

and internationally, as it is necessary for a clean stable future development, because climate

change is becoming an increasingly hot topic, especially in the last ten years with

international governments producing environmental policies. Stigta et al (2014) states that

‘Internationally, there has been a recent surge of concern regarding the increasing emissions

of air pollutions and global climate change on the one hand and increasing energy

consumption and the security of energy supplies on the other hand’. Germany is a good

example of this, as they aim to meet the target of a 55% reduction of Green House Gases

(GHG) by 2030, and an 80-95% reduction by 2050 (BMWi, 2010). This statement backs up

what the report is saying that new sustainable energy supplies ‘renewable’ need to be

encouraged to a higher level. Fortunately there is a solution, as renewable energy technology

has been invested in heavily in recent years, and countries are looking at them as the answer

for our future energy source. However, these developments that were formerly thought to be

‘green’ positive have started to become controversial, and in Ireland at the moment the

installation of wind turbines throughout the country has caused a lot of uncertainty for land

owners.

One of the biggest problems facing us today is climate change. For in this reports opinion,

it is caused by three areas.

The rising human population,

Their increasing hunger for natural resources,

3

GHG emissions.

Due to the rising population, global need for energy is expanding ever year, and if we already

include our current activities, the amount of GHG going into the atmosphere is quite vast.

Figure 1 shows the current atmospheric CO2 dilution, and the predicted rise (545ppm by

2050).

Figure 1. CO2 Rise prediction. (WUWT n.d.)

One of the biggest areas with the release of GHG such as carbon dioxide (CO2) or

methane (CH4) in Ireland is for the production of electricity, and demand for which is

increasing year by year. GHG emissions in 2011 were 25% above 1990 levels (SEAI, 2012)

with 2013 carbon levels having reached >396ppm, compared to 390.5ppm in 2011. That is

40% greater compared to 1750, which shows that human technology and its expansion has

caused the dramatic atmospheric CO2 rise (IPCC, 2013). With this atmospheric CO2 rise, the

weather of the earth is changing a lot rapidly than usual, and this will cause “climate change”

rather than “global warming”, with some areas like the UK and Ireland, for example

predicted to cool rather than become warmer (The Week, 2013). With the help of renewable

energy, we can slow down the process of climate change so it can be controlled and prevent

its dramatic effects.

4

The battle of reduction of harmful substances into the atmosphere has been tackled

head-on before. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are gaseous compounds from industrial origin

that were heavily used in the past. It was noticed these compounds (some of which are also

GHG) caused substantial damage to the ozone layer (Ravishankara, et al 2009), and heavy

regulations were brought in place, with the Montreal protocol successfully leading to the

phase-out of 95% of CFC use (Gareau, 2010). This shows that international governments can

work together, even though CFCs were then important for human day to day life, their uses

for products for example fridges are a lot less numerous. The reduction of carbon dioxide

will be a lot tougher to achieve.

In Ireland, as the population continues to increase, emissions will also increase. The belief of

this thesis is that every country has a part to play to combat climate change. With help from

the EU initiatives like the European Climate Change Program (ECCP) and the European

union (EU) directive 2009/28/EC on the ‘promotion of the use or energy from renewable

sources’ (CEC, 2009), Ireland put in references and international initiatives like the Kyoto

protocol 1997, where plans are underway to combat the emission increase. With this, laws

can be put into place to encourage the carbon reduction, for example through the use of the

carbon tax. In the last ten years renewable energy projects have become common in Ireland,

with wind turbines in particular producing 18-19% of the country’s energy in 2013 (IWEA,

2014). This figure shows significant annual progress, the Republic of Ireland as a country has

almost reached its targets of meeting 20% renewable energy production by 2020. However,

the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (DCENR) has set Ireland

a target of 40% of its renewable energy by 2020 (SEAI, 2009) which, if met, will be a

significant environmental and national achievement.

5

Figure 2: Pie chart showing proportions of renewable energy sector in Ireland 2012

(Source: DECNR, 2014)

As seen in Figure 2, wind energy is by far the most successful renewable energy resource in

Ireland, just over five times more utilised than its nearest competitor Hydropower.

History

Ireland’s first wind farm was built in 1992 in Bellacorrick, Co. Mayo. This project

was able to produce 1,397 megawatts (MW) of energy, which for its time and technology was

a successful project both economically and environmentally (SEAI, 2014), as its capacity was

able to reduce 20,000 tonnes of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere every year (SEAI, n.d.).

Wind-sourced electricity production has since been constantly on the rise, and continues to do

so. By mid-2010 there were 110 wind farms operational in Ireland, and with the new target of

40% of electricity to be sourced by renewable energy, wind power will have a large part to

play. As already mentioned, electricity production is one of the largest sources of GHG

emissions and in the USA, for example, 34% of emissions are due to electricity production

(USEPA, 2010). In Ireland, according to the Mayo Energy Agency (2014), wind energy

could produce up to nineteen times the energy compared to the current ESB system. Due to

6

this potential capacity, Ireland is being looked at as a potential exporter of electricity for the

UK via the recent electricity interconnector projects.

A great example of the potential electricity generation is the London Array off shore

wind farm. This highly successful project includes 175 wind turbines that reduce 900,000

tonnes/CO2/year going into the atmosphere every year and has the capacity to power 2/3rds

of the homes in Kent (Shabkleman, 2013). The population of Kent in mid-2012 was

1,480,200 people and with 470,000 houses (Kent Co. Co. 2012), so this has the capacity to

supply 2/3 this area with energy. The point is, imagine a similar project like the London

Array in Ireland. With our current population almost reaching almost five million, a project

like this alone has the potential to supply 20% of our population! This will significantly

reduce our carbon emissions. Fortunately there is a plan for a Dublin Array wind farm to be

developed in 2015. It is proposed that it will be built 10km east off the Dublin coast with the

energy to be capable to provide electricity for 450,000 homes, though this essentially will be

mostly exported to the U.K. Despite economic benefits however, there are problems with

Irish people opposing plans like these on the grounds that they disturb our country

unnecessarily.

The need for renewable energy.

Energy production is a popular topic at the moment, and as with all countries around

the world increasing their consumption or fossil fuels and the prices continue to rise, with

predictions of prices hitting $190/ barrel in 2020 (Makan, 2014), renewable energy is fast

becoming a valued resource, both environmentally and economically with renewable energy

being “fundamental to economic recovery” according to DCENR (n.d.). It also has the

capacity to save the Irish State a lot of money, with the Irish Wind Energy Association IWEA

(2012) stating that “the use of renewables accounted for a saving of nearly €300 million on

gas imports to Ireland in 2011”.

7

As already mentioned with regard to the battle to reduce carbon emissions, we are

fortunate as there is a solution. Renewable energy is a proven industry, which apart from

erecting and manufacturing the technology, has zero carbon emissions when operational. Of

the many different types of forms of renewable technology, Ireland as a country is very lucky

to be able to harvest many of the available renewable energy options. (These statements were

the basis for questions 6 and 7 in the current research survey, to see the respondent’s’

opinions on the comparisons on the different forms of renewable energy in Ireland). With this

in mind, the area this project will focus on is wind energy as its potential in Ireland and other

countries is huge, and already contributed 15.3% of Ireland’s electricity needs in 2012

(Figure 2).

Problems with wind turbines in Ireland.

With the energy minister of Ireland, Pat Rabbitte, announcing plans for Ireland to aim to

reach 40% of electricity from wind by 2020 (DCENR, 2012), the number of wind turbines

are soon to increase in Ireland. Unfortunately, problems have started to arise with many

people throughout the country, and there is a split in opinion - mainly between people who

are already affected, and people who are unsure of the effects that might occur if the large-

scale wind turbines are going to be placed near them; with this being the reasoning for

question 13 in my survey (see appendix) . As the title suggests, the aim of this thesis is the

see what the landowners actually know, as they are becoming increasingly common

throughout the country. The Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland (SEAI) reports that there is

a general positive view in the wind turbines, and they are accepted as a future requirement for

sustainable progression. However according to their report “Attitudes towards development

of wind turbines in Ireland’, (SEAI, n.d.) while there is a general positive view, people don`t

8

want turbines near them. SEAI refer to this as their ‘Not in my back yard’ (NIMBY) effect,

which concludes that people realise that wind turbines are needed, but not wanted near them.

This is the reasoning for ‘Question 20’ in the survey (Appendix), to see what the respondent’s

opinions on the wind turbine positioning are.

Protest groups are being set up all over the country, focusing on the turbines and their

disturbances for the local people and social media have become a valued resource, with

groups like ‘South Kildare against Spin’ being one example set up on Facebook (SKAS,

2014). Communities are unsure of how these large machines will impact their area, especially

as some are 180 meters high, (compared to the Spire in Dublin which is 121.2 metres high).

Landscape interference is also an issue, and in some areas with landscape sensitivities

planning applications will have unknown outcomes, since it is the first time a wind turbine

will be built there. The impact on biodiversity is another focus, and one example of this is

bird fatalities: with dead birds being found at the base of the turbines although according to

Negin (2013) wind turbines are actually a very small percentage of total bird fatalities (970

million compared to 573,000 due to collisions with buildings). Economists are also very

doubtful about turbines. Maiik (2009) states that for wind turbines to become economically

efficient, a proper payback period needs to be calculated, as they are “not beneficial to every

area”, and are generally operational 70-85% of the time, which needs to be taken into

account. The Taylor and Tanton report (2012) refers to “numerous hidden costs to wind

power” and states that European governments wind power calculations are very optimistic.

According to Angelakoglou et al (2014), the problem with landowners’ potential

disturbance is that there is “no clear answer regarding wind turbines with the optimum social

performance and highest social acceptance”. This means that local societies general

acceptance of the planning, operation and construction phases are different to every wind

9

turbine development, and the impact on the locals are uncertain until after completion.

Though this can be solved by responsible planning and compensation, where land owners

have the potential to be well paid for the use of their land, and this is the reasoning for

question 12 in my survey, with the aim being to see what the respondents thought was a fair

figure. What I am looking for in this survey is to see what information general land owners

have on wind turbines, and to see if they need to be supplied with information, especially if

they will be close to a planned wind turbine site.

Aims and Objectives

Due to land owners uncertainty on proposed placements of wind turbines on or near

their land, the aim of this thesis is to see how much the respondents know about them, and

their current views, especially with affected people or people with strong opinions, meaning

that people who have been affected both previously or currently, have experience with the

turbines or someone who has knowledge on the wind turbines. Also to get their opinions on

renewable energy in general. When this study is finished I hope to have a detailed account of

what the respondents actually know and their views, and also the hope is that if land owners

show a poor understanding of these issues. This report can be forwarded to who is relevant,

so they can act on distributing more information if needed.

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Materials and Methods

According to Salter and Martin (2001) “it is clear that the benefits from public

investment in basic research can take a variety of forms”. It seemed that the best way to

obtain this information was to do a survey-based report, in conjunction with the necessary

research using books, newspapers and the Internet. A survey approach was chosen over

discussion groups, as it would be easier to separate and rationalise the information obtained.

As this was a survey-based project, the materials were very basic, being basic stationary and

a laptop computer, with the Word and Office software programs being essential.

The core research centred on a questionnaire survey used to access the current

opinions from landowners on wind turbines in Ireland. For constructing the survey, Microsoft

word was used rather than using a template like Survey Monkey. This gave the flexibility to

administer the survey not just on the internet, but verbally person-to-person or over the

phone.

The choice of questions was informed by a broad literature survey encompassing

scientific articles, media reports, and the Facebook pages of groups opposing development of

wind farms in their area. The questions are a mixture, being mainly about wind turbines, but

also asked questions about other forms of renewable energy, like solar power for example, to

help put the answers on turbines into a broader context. The order of the questions was also

mixed up. This method was chosen, as after the practice surveys it was found the peoples

interest did not fade compared to having the questions which needed more effort being

presented in a clump.

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A prototype questionnaire was formed, reviewed and altered twice, which included

formulation of new questions. The structure was a semi- closed survey incorporating Yes and

No answers allowing the respondents to qualify some answers and give personal opinions.

Before the surveys were used for questioning, two practice surveys were undertaken with one

male and one female participant, to get an outside opinion for where improvements could be

made. There were timed, where it showed the average time it would take to complete the

survey in eight minutes. The only change to the survey from this was a rearranging of the

questions, as it had in their opinion that most of the “heavy-thinking” questions came first.

Therefore, the order of the questions was mixed up to try and ensure that people’s interest

didn`t fade due to having the questions which needed more effort in a clump.

One thing that was innatially proposed was to see the different views from

generations in the same family, and the aim of this was to see would the generational gap

show different views? It was initially intended to get respondents from all over Ireland, but

the Leinster counties were mostly targeted because of large amount of proposed wind

turbines for these areas in particular (Westmeath Independent, 2013). It was hoped that a

good mixture of age and geographical spread of participants would be used for this survey,

and this was achieved by a number of ways. Firstly regards age, the aim was to have a large

age distribution. A number of participants were farmers known to the author so there were

targeted first, and their neighbours were also surveyed. Social areas were also a targeted like

livestock marts. People further afield were contacted and surveyed by phone generally, but

post was also used, as was e-mail, being whichever method was preferred by the respondent.

However the majority of these surveys were completed on a face-to-face basis. All the

respondent surveys were printed for easier assessment, and gone through thoroughly; keeping

careful notes of how each question had been responded to.

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Results and Discussion

Overall, there was 37 surveys completed and all were included in the survey results,

and the results were tabulated (see Appendix).

Figure 3a shows where the participants lived on a provincial level and Figure 3b

breaks down the distribution of respondents in Leinster, from where the majority of the

results were received. The reason for these questions was to see where the respondents is in

relation to the majority of the wind farms, for example the county with the most wind energy

production is County Cork creating 379.58MW (IWEA, 2014).

Figure 3a. Distribution of participants at provincial range .

Figure 3b. The Distribution of participants in the Leinster area.

Leinster

Munster

Ulster

Connacht

Carlow

Dublin

Kildare

Kilkenny

Laois

Meath

Wexford

Wicklow

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The ages of the respondents had a large distribution, with the youngest respondent being 18,

and the oldest was 62 years old (Figure 4). This was asked to get an idea of the general

experience and how long the respondents are out of education.

Figure 4. The ages on the respondents.

As large numbers of proposed wind turbines are going to be placed in the Irish country side,

there are going to be impacts with location near family homes, so it was thought it would be

valid to ask how far the participants lived away from the turbines, so see their experience

related to the turbines.

Figure 5. Distance from closest wind farm.

As seen with Figure 5 the vast majority live at least ten kilometres away, with only two

survey respondents living less than one km away from a wind farm. Both those individuals

surprisingly said they that there was no issue being beside the wind turbines, and they are

≤20

21-30

31-40

41-50

51+

≥1km

≥10km

10-20km

20km+

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needed in today’s world, and had minimal disturbance. This is backed up by a study in

Ireland and explains that ‘local people become more favourable after construction’ and their

‘degree of acceptance increases in proximity to them’ Warren et al, (2005). These statements

were interesting as some survey participants had great issues with the turbines, even though

they were living 20km+ from them, so it should be noted that as these participants live far

from the wind turbines, they might not have the sufficient exposure to make a valid

judgement.

As the title suggests, the aim of this project is to get “Land owners perceptions on

wind turbines”. Though doing this, the best approach was it seemed to get some basic

information. Overall 75.6% of survey respondents said they had general knowledge on

renewable energy, while 72.3% said that they had a general knowledge on wind turbines.

15

Wind turbine positives and negatives.

With many divided opinions around the country with regards whether wind turbines are

worthwhile or not, it was thought it would be interesting to see what the survey respondent’s

opinions were. When asked about this, a broad range of answers were received (Appendix).

The standout answer when asked about the positives were that they are a clean source of

renewable energy, with the general agreement that having these in our country supplying us

with power will vastly lower our carbon emissions and reduce the climate change process.

One participant mentioned that with the carbon tax, this renewable resource will reduce

carbon tax fines. This statement was very interesting, though only 16% of participants

mentioned that these turbines made economic sense and only 8% of participants mentioned

that it has the capacity to create jobs. The basis of this being that since Ireland is one of the

best countries in Europe for wind, if we can export energy, it will make high economic sense.

Environmentally-friendly and pollution free were other valid points that were also mentioned.

An interesting opinion that 21% of the participants agreed upon was that wind turbines have

the ability to make a large proportion of Ireland’s energy home-produced. When people were

asked about this, the point was made that they like the idea of Ireland having the ability to

become sustainable, and not relying on other countries for energy in the future, especially

with the uncertainty of fossil fuels. With regards visual impacts on the country side, one lady

mentioned that they make it look more twenty- first century, which in her view is a benefit as

it gives the country a positive international image.

When looking for opinions on negative aspects, the survey went with a slightly different

approach and gave the three most complained about aspects of the turbines (being visual,

noise disruption and shadow flicker) and respondents had indicate their overall agreement

16

by choosing Yes or No (Table 1). This was followed by asking did they have any other

issues.

Table 1. Results of Question 18

The results from this table are interesting; especially with shadow flicker getting a Yes

answer of 41% compared to noise with 38%. However these results are not surprising as

according to the SEAI (n.d.) report, Irish people are generally positive towards wind turbines

in Ireland. The majority of people on all three accounts had answered No rather than Yes and

the issue with these aspects with the highest negative being visual at 43%.Where respondents

were able to mention any other negatives, only 35% left comments- whereas 100% of

respondents left comments for the positives. Economic uncertainty was mentioned regarding

the turbines with the three aspects regarding this being

Wind turbine payback

Land prices

House prices

With regards these three issues, wind turbines can be an issue as the respondents stated that

they are aware that the wind isn’t constant, and with regards buying their own wind turbine

for private use respondents are unsure if they are economically viable as they are unsure of

the pay back period. As regards land and house prices, once again the respondents would not

Disruption

Answer

Response

Visual disruption. Yes 43%

No 57%

Noise. Yes 38%

No 62%

Shadow flicker. Yes 41%

No 59%

17

know the effect until the turbine is up, but one respondent mentioning that if there was a

substantial visual or noise disturbance, the house would be very hard to sell. Environmental

damage was also a mentioned problem, as was their effects on wildlife. Human health was

also an issue for two people, and they mentioned that they heard about people living near the

houses get headaches. The respondents also mentioned about shadow flicker and wind

turbine syndrome, and they were unsure how someone would react if this posed a problem,

particularly an epilepsy sufferer. The vast majority of people didn`t see how their health

would be impacted regards the turbines, which contrasts with countries like Canada, which

take it as serious matter and where ‘health has become one of the most contentious policy

issues’ (Watson et al, 2012).

Environment.

For this section, it was thought it would be an appropriate question to ask “Do you really care

for the environment?” The reasons for this question, being that one of the main alleged

advantages of the wind turbines is that they are environmentally friendly. The survey gave

three possible answers, and the results are shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6. Pie chart. Do respondents ‘care’ for the environment.

The results of this question are quite positive; with the vast majority saying that they care for

the environment (the 5% who said they didn’t care were two twenty one year old males).

Landscape interference is another area that is mentioned as regards possible environmental

No - 5%

Sometimes -

15%

Yes - 79%

18

disturbance. When respondents were asked if they thought there would be an issue with this,

76% said that there would be disturbance of some degree, but when asked if this would

bother them, only 54% replied Yes. As already mentioned in the previous section, there is a

general agreement regarding the wind turbines being positive for the environment.

Economics

When carrying out the surveys, one stand-out obvious point that was made was that

money talks, and as one Cavan man said “if the numbers don`t add up, it is not worth it

simple as that”. This sort of response was expected when constructing the survey, so it was

thought that an important question to ask was if it was economically viable would they invest

in their own wind turbine. Encouragingly, 59% of the respondents said that they would invest

in a wind turbine, as if it was successful it would prove to be quite a positive investment, the

reason for this question being how encouraging they think the wind turbines are. With

regards the larger turbines, they were asked how much they would expect per turbine per year

on their land (see Figure 7).

Figure 7:Histogram showing Participant expectation of financial compensation (/

turbine/ year).

0

2

4

6

8

10

>€5,000 €5-9,000 €9-11,000 €11-20,000 €20,000+

Single turbine compensaion

19

Thirty-three out of the thirty-seven respondents gave figure answers; with the figure

of €10,000 was the most common received, whereas Meitheal na Gaoithe (MNAG - The Irish

Wind Farmers Association) give figures of €8,000 per installed MW /year/turbine. Of the

four respondents that didn`t give figures, three people said that it should vary year-to-year

based on a percentage of the profit it made per year. The other person said it should be based

on the value of the land, as there is a large land price differential between counties in Ireland,

with the person saying that tillage land in Kildare (€13,114/ acre) would be worth more than

€4,156/acre value of grazing land in Leitrim (figures from The Farmers Journal Land price

report, 2013). This was a very interesting question to ask, as the respondents really had to

think, and were encouraged to give their own opinion, rather than get a figure from

somewhere else. According to the Teagasc report “Wind farms”(n.d.) a land-owner under

Renewable Energy Feed in Tariff (REFIT) can make €57/Mw. With regards smaller private

wind turbines, for example a single 15-20mw could cost around €60,000, the payback will

depend on how many hours it will be in operation per year, so a suitable site is essential.

At the moment there is controversy with foreign companies whose projects have

the sole aim of exporting energy the UK, while according to McGreevy (2014) wind energy

in Ireland can add €5bn/ year to the Irish economy. It was asked if respondents minded

foreign companies producing energy in Ireland, as Irish people generally prefer being in

control of their own resource as other countries do too, though they have no control over oil

at present, and wind energy being a relatively new technology. Overall, 59% said that they

didn`t like the idea as it was seen as it is ‘our’ resource, and if it was to be exported Irish

companies should be in charge, to have more direct income and job development being

brought into the country. On the other hand 59% also agreed that Irish energy should be

exported. For comparison purposes, they were asked if they minded foreign companies

20

producing food in Ireland, where 43% did care how much is actually exported, which is

interesting as there is a 16% difference comparing food to energy exportation. Their view

(supported by Irish Times data – Healy, 2014) is that last year almost €10 Billion was

exported and Irish companies should have as much a market share as possible.

Placement

The axiom is that successful planning boils down to three words: 'location', 'location',

and 'location'. Placement is the main factor if the wind turbines will become a success story,

as proper placement could result in minimal human disturbance, and this being one of the

reasons for question 22 in the survey as roughly half an acre will be used for each turbine.

Overall, 57% of people said that they thought a wind turbine wouldn’t cause much

disturbance on their land. This is a good result, though the respondents did stress that

placement would be a very important factor and the general agreement was that the further

away from the house the better. Again 57% said that the government were placing good

planning practices into the placement of wind farms as planning laws in Ireland are becoming

very precise, though some did stress that will this continue as many more windfarms are

planned to be erected in the next few years. This question was asked, because as the

government are under pressure to meet renewable energy target demands, the aim was to see

do the respondents trust the government to carry out responsible planning.

When asked on their preferences for on-shore or off-shore with regards the turbines,

with the options being Yes, No or “don`t mind if we have both options” the following results

were shown (Figure 8). The majority answer (57%)being that they would be more suited to

be at sea, as they would then cause least disruption to people abd probably more effective due

to the higher available winds at sea compared to land, but 38% said that they understood that

both options will be needed to make them efficiently worthwhile. Two people (both males in

the 21-30 age group) said that they would prefer them on land, saying that putting them at sea

21

will be far too expensive and the more on land will bring more money to the owners, thus

bringing more money into the local economy. The general consensus being putting the wind

turbines in an area uninhabited by humans as possible, and this research was backed up with

a similar project by Warren et al, (2005).

Figure 8. Participants preferred wind turbine placement.

Question 4 in the survey ‘If you were informed of a wind turbine farm was going to

be built one km away from your house, what would your first thoughts be?’, was the only

question where the participant could really write their opinion with no particular guidance

given. The answers that were received were very broad and interesting (Appendix: Results

Table 3). The most obvious answer, and one that should be seen as a positive, was that the

majority of people see them as an environmental benefit, and also if they followed proper

planning laws and EIA regulation in suitable locations, there would be no problem. Five

people did mention that if there was minimal disruption then appropriate financial

compensation would solve the issue. The other point that was noticed was that respondents

admitted that they just did not know that much about the wind turbines, and stressed that

more information would be needed to be available to them. They said that, for example if

they heard the turbine in one of their furthest fields, it wouldn`t be as much of an issue, but if

it impacted their house, then yes, there would become a problem because they wouldn`t know

the disturbance severity, being economic, noise, visual etc until after it was erected. One

person did mention that he did a lot of research on the impact of a wind turbine close to a

Yes - 57%

No - 5%

Both options

- 38%

22

house, as he was approached to put one turbine on his land. He said in his own words that, if

‘proper placement is undertaken and a certain distance required by law is met, and both the

developer and the resident are satisfied, there should be no problem’. One good point about

this conversation that was taken into account was that there should be a standard minimal

distance between house and turbine. The Polish wind power sector is looking into this, where

the proposed law stops wind turbines being built 3km near any residential properties and

forested areas (Kosc, 2014). This will be ideal for local residents, as there will be minimal

disruption caused. Though the Polish Wind Power Association and several other lobbying

groups say that “such a requirement would eliminate a great majority of suitable locations”. If

a law like this were to be passed in Ireland, it would be very beneficial as regards the local

people’s complainants when the planning application is made available to the public. Other

countries have similar restrictions, like Denmark for example, the country that has the most

wind power per capita, the restrictions are four times the height of the turbine which is

generally around the 500m mark (Danish wind energy association, 2014).

Local residents would have to know that the wind turbines will not be in close

proximity to their homes to cause major disruption. However a 3km restriction could be far

too much in Ireland due to our country size and “development in Ireland has been occurring

chaotically, with little or no strategic co-ordination” according to One-off Ireland (n.d.). They

mention that housing dispersal plan in Ireland is very much unorganised, and this scattering

of houses has lead to houses being in unsuitable areas so finding large suitable areas for a

wind farm could be tough if complying with the 3km distance.

With regards information on the wind turbines, as already mentioned, 72% of the

participants said that they had a general knowledge, but it was stressed that it was very

general knowledge, and while the majority of this surveys participants were young and had

access to the internet, it was generally noticed that if people wanted information they had to

23

go look for it, as opposed to the information being brought to them. One of the aims of this

project is to see people’s opinions, and what was clearly seen was that people want and need

to know more, and the information has to be brought to them. The Farmers Journal weekly

newspaper for example would be a great option, whether a weekly column, or a large article,

and as it has a readership if 259,000 people a week, it would be very suitable and would give

information directly to the target audience.

As we progress into the 21st century, and are looking at new clean ways to produce

energy, an interesting question in this questionnaire was asked, with regards an already

proven energy technology, Nuclear power. The answers for this sub topic that I received were

very interesting. They were asked if they “would be happy if nuclear energy was proposed to

be used in Ireland”. The most popular answer was No with 62% of the participants saying

this. Interestingly, when the people gave their views for this, they seemed unsure, for

example they thought nuclear power would be too dangerous and unsafe referring to the

Chernobyl disaster, with only slight mentioning of the success in counties like France and the

USA. With regards the 38% of people who answered Yes they seemed more sure with their

answers. The general answer was the looking at how successful it is in other countries, and it

is clean and efficient, it would be a positive electricity contributor in Ireland if done correctly.

Generation comparisons

Another planned aim of this project, when analysing the results was to compare the different

opinions of the older and younger generation’s in the same family. The reason for these

questions being, will they have the same opinions, or would they contrast? Five families

were included in this section, with both the parent and their child being analysed. While

looking at the surveys, it was noticed that there was a large similarity in the opinions between

them. However it was noticeable that the younger generation had a more positive attitude

24

compared to the older generation with regards renewable energy, and seemed to accept that

they are needed for future development. All five of the older generation wanted the wind

turbines out at sea as to have they out of the way as possible, where the majority of the

younger generation acknowledged that both wind turbines on land and sea are suitable.

25

Conclusion and Recommendation.

The aim of the project was to look to get more of an understanding of what

landowners knew and their views on wind turbines, and to a lesser extent climate change and

renewable energy, and this was achieved. The respondents gave a range of answers that were

very useful, but it was noticed that many people did not have enough knowledge on the

matter, and were giving opinions on what they heard “from their neighbour”. The vast

majority have a positive attitude towards wind turbines; renewable energy and sustainable

development, but there are a small few that have negative views due to certain disturbances

which is understandable on their part. These people need to be approached as to prevent this

happening in the future. It should also be mentioned that respondents did show a willingness

to learn, as they realise that it is an important area in the future, so in this reports opinion the

relevant information needs to be more accessible for the people, like the Farmers Journal as

already mentioned.

This is one of the main conclusions of this project is that people need to be given

access to more information due to the uncertainty of how they will be affected by a proposed

wind farm project. Also land owners have the potential to have a new ‘crop’ with regards

energy development, being wind turbines, bio fuels etc. and potentially a new income source,

and relevant up to date information regards energy technology needs to be supplied. This

report’s findings states that with proper planning agreements brought into place by the

government and local acceptance, and after the locals are satisfied with the proposed project;

including receiving direct information like a letter for example there can be a positive with

these turbines in Ireland. This statement is backed up by Songsore and Buzzellin (2014) who

say that there is an ‘urgent need for community level engagement in the wind energy

planning and development processes. This report also finds, like as already mentioned size

and scale are crucial for the particular selected area and the cumulative impacts must be taken

26

into account also. Following these points mentioned, there should be both economic benefits

for our country and the people involved and environmental benefits to combat climate

change, and closer to meeting the target of a sustainable future, and not only in Ireland but in

the EU, where wind power has being growing, on average, at 22% per annum since 2000

(EWEA, 2004).

27

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31

Appendices

Appendix 1

The following is the Questionnaire survey used for this project

Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. It should take no more than

ten minutes to complete.

Where it says (Y/N) at the end of each question please just circle your answer for yes or

no, otherwise, please supply brief written answers of 1 or 2 sentences where indicated.

If you do this on a computer, put a dash etc in the chosen box, and for the Y/N answers

just delete the answer you don`t choose.

Opinion Survey.

Age (please tick the appropriate box).

≤20 41-50

21-30 51-60

31-40 61+

County you live in

Approx. nearest wind turbine farm close to your home. (tick the correct box).

Less than 1km

Less than 10km

10-20km

20km +

32

1. Do you have any knowledge on renewable energy in general?

Y/N

2. Do you have any knowledge on wind turbines?

Y/N

3. Would you be happy if nuclear energy was proposed to be used in Ireland?

Y/N

Briefly give a reason to your answer.

4. If you were informed of a wind turbine farm was going to be built one km away from

your house, what would your first thoughts be? (one or two sentences only)

5. Would you have much knowledge about other forms of renewable energy?

Y/N

6. Do you think solar energy would be a better solution than wind energy in Ireland?

Y/N

Briefly explain your answer.

7. Do you think wave energy would be a better solution than wind energy in Ireland?

Y/N

33

Briefly explain your answer.

8. Would you agree that with the increasing rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,

would it make environmental sense for renewable energy to expand in Ireland?

Y/N

9. Do you see a role for farmers/ rural land owners in alternative energy production?

Y/N

10. Do you think wind turbines are an answer to Ireland’s future electricity source?

(Please tick the box beside your chosen answer)

Yes

No

Only part of the solution

11. As Ireland is planning on doubling on the current amount of wind turbines by 2020,

would you agree that it's a potential area of employment?

Y/N

12. What would you think is a fair amount of money for a landowner to receive for

having a turbine erected on their land per year?

€

13. Do you think a wind turbine on your land would cause much disruption?

Y/N

34

14. Should Ireland be producing energy for export?

Y/N

15. Do you like the idea of foreign companies producing electricity in Ireland?

Y/N

16. Do you mind foreign companies producing food in Ireland?

Y/N

17. What do you think the main source of electricity will be in 20 years time?

18. Do you find these following aspects negatives for wind turbines?

Circle the answers.

Visually displeasing. Yes No

Noisy Ye No

Shadow flicker Yes No

(Shadow flicker is the flicker of light, caused by the rotating blades).

Other possible negatives?

19. Do you think there is proper planning going into the placement/construction of wind

farms?

Y/N

20. Would you much prefer to see wind turbines at sea, rather than on land? (tick box)

Yes

No

Don t̀ mind if we have

35

21. If you were in the position would you invest in a private wind turbine?

Y/N

22. (A) If wind turbines become successful, would you think there would be an issue with

landscape interference?

Y/N

(B) If this happened, would this bother you?

Y/N

23. Do you really care about the environment? (Tick appropriate box)

No, never crosses my mind.

Sometimes

Yes.

24. Do you think the government are doing enough to protect the environment?

Y/N

Further comments

25. In your own opinion, what do you think the main positives of wind turbines are?

both options

36

Appendix 2

Closed ended questions

Results Table 2,

Qn.

No. Short questions and results. (Excluding questions 4,12,17,25) YES NO

Part of

the

solution

1 Do you have any knowledge on renewable energy in general? 75.60% 24.40%

2 Do you have any knowledge on wind turbines? 72.30% 27.70%

3 Would you be happy if nuclear energy was proposed to be used in Ireland? 38% 62%

5 Would you have much knowledge about other forms of renewable energy? 54% 46%

6 Do you think solar energy would be a better solution than wind energy in Ireland? 32.40% 67.60%

7 Do you think wave energy would be a better solution than wind energy in Ireland? 48.60% 51.40%

8

Would you agree that with the increasing rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, would it make environmental sense for

renewable energy to expand in Ireland? 89.20% 10.80%

9 Do you see a role for farmers/ rural land owners in alternative energy production? 94.50% 5.50%

10

Do you think wind turbines are an answer to Ireland’s future electricity source? 13.50% 13.50% 73%

11

As Ireland is planning on doubling on the current amount of wind turbines by 2020, would you agree that it's a potential area of employment? 91.90% 8.10%

13

Do you think a wind turbine on your land would cause much

disruption? 43% 57%

14 Should Ireland be producing energy for export? 59.50% 40.50%

15

Do you like the idea of foreign companies producing electricity

in Ireland? 40.50% 59.50%

16 Do you mind foreign companies producing food in Ireland? 43.20% No

56.8%

37

Results table 2

Visually

Displeasing Noise

Shadow

Flicker

18 Do you find these following aspects negatives for wind turbines?

Yes 43% No 57%

Yes38% No 62%

Yes 40.5% No 62%

YES NO

19 Do you think there is proper planning going into the placement/construction

of wind farms? 56.70% 43.30%

20

Would you much prefer to see wind

turbines at sea, rather than on land? 57% 5%

Both options

38%

21

If you were in the position would you

invest in a private wind turbine? 59% 41%

22a If wind turbines become successful, would you think there would be an

issue with landscape interference? 75% 25%

22b If this happened, would this bother

you? 54% 46%

23

Do you really care about the

environment? 78.40% 5.40%

Sometimes

16.2%

24

Do you think the government are doing

enough to protect the environment? 40.50% 59.50%

Opened-ended questions.

Results table 4

Question 4 answers (summarised). If you were informed of a wind turbine farm was going to be built one km away from your house, what would your first thought be? Mentions

House proximity 3 How would it affect me (economic, visual, noise) 11

Would want to see planning application 3

Very good 16

Positive for clean energy 3

Environmental concerns 2

Economic benefits for the persons effected 5

Not happy 5

Ok if planning laws met 2

Environmental benefit 5 Would need more information 2

Cheap electricity source 2

38

Results table 5

Answers for Question 12

What would you think is a fair amount of money for a

landowner to receive for having a turbine erected on

their land per year?

Answers Mentions Varies from year to year 1 Percentage of Wind Turbine profit 2

Depends on the value of the land 1 €

10,000 8 25,000 2

20,000 4 50,000 1

7,000 1 1,000 4

15,000 1 8,000 4

6,000 2

300 1 5,000 3

30,000 2

39

Results table 6

Answer to question 17.

What do you think the main source of electricity be in 20 years’ time?

Answers Mentions

Wave energy 3

Oil 5

Wind and solar 3

Renewable energy and Fossil fuels 1

Majority wind turbines and other renewable technology 1

Wind and wave 2

Wind 5

Renewable energy and Fossil fuels 2

Renewable with coal 4

Nuclear power 7

Turf 1

Wave energy (largest) and other renewable 1

Same as now 4

40

Results table 7.

Question 23 answers.

In your own opinion, what do you think the main positives of wind turbines

are? Answers Mentions

Clean source of energy 16 Renewable 12

Reduce carbon emissions 3 Decrease use of fossil fuels 2

Wind never completely stop 1 Less dependent on foreign countries 4

No damage to the environment 3 Positives outweigh negatives 1

Proper planning can enhance landscape 3

Better road infrastructure around wind turbines 1

Cheap electricity 7

Self sufficient 7 Pollution free 1

Harness what we have 2 Help against the carbon tax fines 2

Reduce carbon emissions 2

Job creation 3 Economic sense 2

A good contributor to our own electricity reserve 1