Are wind farms a great new way to generate clean energy, or a visual blight to be battled and thwarted? The New York Times looks at the question and examines how proposed wind power projects around the globe might impact tourism in various cities, regions and countries where tourism is a key part of the economy.
Supporters see modern wind turbines not as Don Quixote’s ferocious giants but as elegant symbols of a clean-energy future. But as the industry expands amid global pressure to cut carbon emissions and fight climate change, an increasingly mobilized anti-wind farm lobby in Europe, North America and elsewhere is decrying the turbines as ugly, noisy and destructive, especially for picturesque locales that rely on tourism. “These are not just one or two turbines spinning majestically in the blue sky and billowing clouds,” said Lisa Linowes, executive director of Industrial Wind Action Group, an international advocacy group based in New Hampshire that opposes wind farms.
Some argue that wind farms themselves can be tourist attractions; others say they wreck the views. One solution of course is locating wind farms in remote areas away from tourist-dependent locales, but that creates a new set of problems such as lack of available transmission lines.
The battle over wind farms is only going to intensify as the wind power industry grows, which will increase the cost of wind energy either through increased legal and regulatory costs or increased costs associated with building wind farms in remote areas.
(NYT photo shows wind turbines in Greece.)
