A Scottish Natural Heritage report considering the options for decommissioning and restoring the sites of redundant wind farms has claimed that leaving the windfarm infrastructure in place would be a positive result for recreational interests.
The report – which considers options for windfarms reaching the end of their 25 year useful lifetimes, including “repowering” the sites with new wind turbines, removing all evidence of the windfarm and restoring the site, or simply leaving the redundant infrastructure in place. When comparing the advantages and disadvantages of restoring the sites to their former condition, the report claims that leaving the unused windfarm in place would have the positive impact that “Retention of access may facilitate… recreational activity” amongst other benefits.
No advantages to recreational activity are considered to be gained by restoring the site to its former state.
The full report can be downloaded from the SNH website.