Onshore wind energy & tourism in Scotland

The Local Impacts

In order to consider the effects at a more local level, BiGGAR Economics considered the impacts associated with 18 wind farms across Scotland, all built between 2009 and 2013.  These are shown in the map below.

The change in tourism employment in the immediate areas surrounding was analysed for each of the wind farm case studies.  This captured trends within the tourism sector at the Local Authority level. This found that the there was a significant variation between sites and there was no overall relationship between the development of wind energy and tourism employment in an area.

In fact, in the majority of cases the level of tourism employment increased more in the immediate area surrounding a wind farm than in the wider Local Authority area.

The full report, including sources, is available here.