How education orientation affects attitudes toward wind energy and wind farms: implications for the planning process

Background: Three groups of stakeholders are mainly involved in the planning, assessment, and approval processes for wind parks: the planners, the public, and the responsible public authorities. These groups have varying aims, and there are various ways of looking at proposals to set up a wind park. In particular, the viewpoints of planners and government officers are likely to differ. Planners are likely to focus on technical aspects of a wind farm project, while the public authorities are likely to be oriented toward environmental considerations. Methods: The effect of respondents' characteristics on landscape perception was analysed using generalized linear mixed models (GLMM). Set of various landscape images with and without wind turbines (WTs) was evaluated on a 15-points scale. The evaluation was accomplished with additional questions about general attitude toward wind energy, willingness to live close to WTs and presence of WTs near respondents' homes. Results: Using a questionnaire presented to university students in technical study programmes and to students in environmental study programmes, it has been determined that educational orientation substantially influences people's perception of wind turbines (WTs). Respondents pursuing technical studies evaluated landscapes with WTs more positively than did students in environmentally oriented study programmes. In addition, the responses of students in environmental study programmes were influenced by their general attitude toward wind energy, unlike the responses of the technically oriented students. We also examined the influence of respondents' other characteristics on their perceptions of WTs in the landscape, including their general attitude toward wind energy and their willingness to live near WTs, toward the presence of WTs in the vicinity of their place of residence, and interactions among these factors. Conclusions: Our study indicates the importance of education in planning wind parks. Sanctioning bodies should be able to evaluate each proposed project adequately and impartially, and to assess the potential level of impact of the proposal on the landscape and on landscape values, including aesthetic values, and on the population, and also other impacts caused by the construction and the functioning of WTs. This kind of professional knowledge is also very important for planners. One way to raise students' awareness and their professional knowledge could be through interdisciplinary coursework on this topic.