Hamburger Menu Button
Link to Search Page
Collapse Expand Button
In response to global climate change imperatives, and to stimulate economic development, the Ontario government unveiled the Green Energy Act in 2009. The instrumental policy was designed to incentivize development in order to foster rapid construction of renewable energy infrastructure. Local planning control over wind energy siting was also removed, as regulations were deemed obstacles to an ambitious wind energy program. Since 2009, hundreds of wind turbines were constructed Ontario’s rural southwest: an accomplishment applauded provincially and globally. But the resulting change to the landscape is dramatic, and local opposition to the policy remains fierce. Discourse has become polarized and bitter over time, and distress has escalated. Although provincially regulators have stated that meaningful community consultation is now urgently needed, the nature of this consultation has not been defined, and local control over planning and siting decisions has not been restored. This research explored a two-stage process to create planning model for rural communities, in order that decisions about wind energy landscapes can be made upstream, in a collaborative and participatory setting. Wind energy planning requires technical information (e.g., wind resources, transmission lines, protected environmental areas, bird migration corridors). However, effective siting of energy projects requires knowledge of landscape character, including the biophysical aspects of landscape, cultural values, and aesthetic experiences associated with ‘place’. Landscape character issues are very complex, as citizens have deeply rooted and often conflicting belief systems about energy development, and divergent views about what changes will harmonize with the character of existing landscapes. In the first stage of this research, two innovative Visual Q-methodology studies were undertaken to investigate residents‘ beliefs and preferences about visual landscape character. The first study used watercolour paintings of landscape to elicit preferences, and a secondary study examined preferences for wind energy landscape scenarios. This practical elicitation tool uncovered key factors, or lines of agreement, showing that residents’ preferences for viewing the landscape can be grouped into patterns. The second stage explored a new process for community-based wind energy planning, influenced by German planning processes, and incorporating new knowledge from the Q-methodology studies. A one-day workshop was designed with the goal of identifying spatial planning zones in a large rural region, (including Bruce, Grey and part of Huron Counties). Twenty-seven participants (planners, elected officials, wind developers, researchers and other citizens) were presented with technical information, and aesthetic values information, along with an outline of the German planning model. Later, in smaller groups, participants collaborated to sketch out potential development zones and restricted areas. The positive results from the planning workshop suggest that community-based planning processes are both urgently needed and very doable, and suggest a positive new direction for this wicked policy problem. An urgent change to the Green Energy Act is required: planning power must be returned to municipal and county authorities, and support must be offered so that upstream, collaborative planning processes can be carefully designed and effectively implemented.