Cornwall has some of the best conditions to produce wind and solar energy in the UK. Its landscape is also of national and international importance as well as being vitally important to the local economy. The development of wind and solar electricity installations therefore needs to be managed carefully to achieve the greatest contribution towards our energy needs, whilst ensuring that the important characteristics of the Cornish landscape and preserved.
In order to help understand how to best accommodate wind and solar installations within the Cornish landscape, LUC undertook a landscape sensitivity assessment based on Cornwall’s landscape character areas and provided siting and design guidance for these installations. The guidance is intended to assist the unitary authority’s development management team and Council Members, as well as developers involved in the preparation, presentation, review and consenting of wind energy and solar PV developments.
We put the latest thinking on landscape sensitivity and capacity (from LUC’s work on revising the Landscape Character Assessment Guidance) into practice in this study, being based on an assessment of landscape character and providing an indication of the relative landscape sensitivities of different areas of Cornwall to wind energy development and solar PV development. We then used GIS to analyse data that contributed to the sensitivity assessment, and to map the results.
This was an exciting project to be involved with because it was the first study in the country to consider the impacts of large scale solar PV development on the landscape. We were very pleased with feedback from the client:
“It has been a pleasure working with [LUC] on this project. I think you have produced an excellent and valuable piece of work that I hope will serve Cornwall well.”
And from Nigel Sumpter, Cornwall AONB Unit:
“I think you have successfully and succinctly captured the essence of the discussions and the [study] really paves the way for assessment of individual proposals in differing locations. May I congratulate and thank you again for such a comprehensive and high quality report.”
