After the developer of the Atlantic Array offshore wind farm, RWE npower renewables, announced that it expects to submit the consent application to the Planning Inspectorate in June of this year, tourism businesses from the Gower peninsula seem to be ambivalent about the project’s impact on their sector.
At the same time, some of the owners of camping sites and hotels in Gower see an advantage in respect to green energy supply with regard to how much the offshore wind farm would distract visitors.
“I don’t think Atlantic Array will have a positive or negative effect. We need more energy. It’s about trying to do it with as little visual impact as possible,” South Wales Evening Post quotes Tom Beynon, joint owner of Three Cliffs Holiday Park , as saying.
Atlantic Array has been reduced in size, both in the area that it covers and in the maximum number of wind turbines.
The visual impact of the project is the main issue when it comes to tourism sector, and even though there are some owners of these businesses that are concerned over it, most of them think that the project will benefit the area in the long run.
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Offshore WIND Staff, March 25, 2013; Image: RWE