Page 375 - A Comprehensive Guide to Solar Energy Systems

382 A COmPrEhEnSIVE GuIdE TO SOLAr EnErGy SySTEmS

19.3.1 How People Experience Solar Farms

People, in their daily lives, move around the landscape to commute, to make other journeys
for work, recreation or to get from one place to another. They also look around while traveling
and may stop to appreciate a particular view. most people therefore experience solar farms
in passing from roads or paths nearby. The viewing experience is different from residential
properties or settlements nearby, with a small number of people seeing an installation re-
peatedly, rather than many people seeing the installation in passing along a busy road.
From a distance, a solar farm appears as a metallic surface, the color and reflectivity
of which depends on the relative direction of view and the light conditions. It may not be
readily perceptible as a solar farm if the lines of panels cannot be distinguished and it can
be mistaken for glasshouses or large industrial building roofs. Only at relatively short dis-
tances can the arrays be seen separately, and the mounting structures are only visible from
the reverse side. Other infrastructure of the solar farm, such as transformers, substation,
worker welfare facilities, security fencing and pole-mounted CCTV equipment are also vis-
ible when close to the installation (Fig. 19.9).

19.3.2 Impressions of a Solar Farm

For many, commercial scale solar farms are still relatively new and there is an element of
curiosity when viewing them, but for other people the panels will be an intrusion in the

FIGURE 19.9 Solar farms include transformers, CCTV cameras and fences as well as panels. Dorset, UK. Photo: B. Dower
(all rights reserved).