Wind FAQ

By their very nature, wind turbines are large structures which need to be higher than surrounding structures to access the best wind resources. Some visual impact is therefore unavoidable whether in open countryside or in more populated areas, as is likely to be the case with our wind projects which seek to locate wind turbines as close to the business they are powering. Impact can however be minimised by avoiding locating turbines in sensitive landscapes, siting them carefully to take account of views from sensitive locations, including houses, and making use of screening from landscape features such as trees and hills.

Noise from wind turbines could be a possible concern, this is particularly true in rural locations where there is little background noise. As technology has improved, turbines are now designed to produce very little noise and much of the noise on a windy day will be from the wind itself, for example rustling leaves in trees. We also seek to site turbines in locations where there will be minimal impacts on residential amenity from noise.

Wind turbines have the potential to impact on species such as birds and bats, as well as migration patterns of some land based animals. As part of any application we undertake a comprehensive suite of surveys with particular focus on protected species. This information is compiled at the very start of any project so it can be fed into the overall design in order to establish detailed schemes of mitigation to minimise any potential impacts.

Shadow flicker can be caused when the sun shines through the turbine blades, casting a moving shadow. According to government guidance, only dwellings within 130 degrees either side of north relative to a turbine can be affected and the shadow can be experienced only within 10 rotor diameters of the wind farm. We seek to avoid this phenomenon by appropriately locating turbines or setting them to automatically stop if the potential for shadow flicker occurs.