On the applicability of the visual impact assessment OAI(spp) tool to photovoltaic plants

Among the technologies of exploitation of renewable energy sources, solar photovoltaic plants and wind power plants are the ones who had the highest growth rate and in the future may contribute substantially to meeting energy demand and requests for production of carbon-free energy. However, it was also shown that even though there is a considerable support for policies promoting renewable energy at a general level, local communities often perceive the installation of systems powered by renewable sources such as limiting the quality of life, or impacting on the natural and built landscape. Consequently, the studies concerning the procedures for assessing the territorial and landscape impacts of this type of systems have recently seen a remarkable development. If an extensive scientific literature is now available regarding the assessment of visual impact of wind turbines, with applications in several countries, there are few studies, theoretical or applied, dealing with the visual impact of photovoltaic plants, which represent, also for their physical size, an important form of transformation of the agricultural and forestry land. As part of studies conducted by the authors regarding the territorial impacts of photovoltaic plant, in this paper, a procedure to evaluate the visual impact of a PV plant based on a quantitative indicator and that was published in the same journal (vol. 13, no. 5, p. 986-99) is adopted and discussed with reference to the application on some case studies. As a result, some modifications to the procedure are presented and a discussion on how this procedure may be used and integrated into the administraive requirements of large and small scale PV plants developments is carried out. From the results, it can be derived that such a procedure can be effectively used provided that a regulatory framework is set by the local authority that carries out the authorizaion procedures. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.