Paper

Visibility Assessment of the Perenye Windpark near the Kőszegi Mountain in Hungary

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Abstract

The visibility assessment of the Perenye Windpark was commissioned in 2009 by the West Transdanubian Authority for Environmental Protection. The plans of the windpark contained 11 turbines situated in an arable area near the small village of Perenye, south of the scenic Kőszegi Mountain and the Írottkő Nature Park. The height of the planned turbines was 179 meters (160 meters tower plus 19 meters rotor height). Ten of them were planned to have 2 MW energy output and one, which was offered by the investors to the local government, 850 kW.

The main reason for the visibility assessment was the need to forecast the changes the windpark will most probably induce in the well-appreciated Transdanubian scenery. According to the Environmental Authority’s demand the visibility assessment had to contain a study of the main viewpoints of the area from which the windpark might appear to observers. These viewpoints were defined by the Environmental Authority itself and consisted of the traces of the two major roads running beside the site and a well-known look-out point of the Kőszegi Mountain called Szent Vid Chapel. The settlement areas of the nearby villages were not included in the Authority’s request for assessment and were therefore not considered in detail. As a consequence of the visibility assessment the possible ways of minimizing the visual effects of the windpark through landscape planning methods had to be considered, and recommendations had to be given for new roadside plantings as well as for the ideal coloring of the turbines. As a result of the work the Authority accepted the plans of the windpark on the condition that all assessment driven recommendations are realized by the investor.

Keywords: greenways, assessment, windpark, koszegi, mountain, visibility, windmill, hungary

How to Cite:

Drexler, D., Sallay, Á. & Jombach, S., (2010) “Visibility Assessment of the Perenye Windpark near the Kőszegi Mountain in Hungary”, Fábos Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning 3(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.7275/fabos.886