Visual Impact of Renewable Energy Infrastructure: Implications for Deployment and Public Perception

Abstract

This study focuses on the specific topic of assessing the negative visual impacts associated with renewable energy infrastructure that may prevent their wider deployment in energy mix. The main objective of the paper is to quantify the perception of the visual impact of renewable energy infrastructure and to estimate potential changes in the visitation of a location after the construction of power plants. The research was conducted using a questionnaire survey in which 449 respondents evaluated edited photographic materials of seven locations with a fictitious power plant. The collected data served as input for the statistical testing of eight defined hypotheses using the U-Mann–Whitney test. The results confirmed trends regarding the influence of age, educational level, and power plant proximity on the overall acceptance of renewable energy infrastructure. Landscape-forming factors affecting the acceptance rate of power plants were also defined at the local level.