Attitudes Towards The Construction Of A Windfarm In Shetland

Ipsos was commissioned by Viking Energy Ltd to conduct a survey among Shetland residents, exploring attitudes towards the proposed construction of a windfarm in the central mainland of the island.

Key findings were as follows:

• 89% of the sample were aware of the proposal to build a major windfarm in the central mainland of Shetland Islands Council.
• 65% of those who were aware of the proposal felt that they were 'very' or 'quite' well informed about the proposal and 35% felt that they were not at all well informed.
• 76% of the sample were generally supportive of the proposal: this includes 45% who strongly supported it and 31% who 'tend to support' it; 6% were opposed to the proposal.
• Among those who opposed the proposal, the main reasons for doing so were that it would spoil views or scenery, damage birds or wildlife and involve too many turbines.
• Among those who supported the proposal, the main reasons for doing so were that it was a clean way to generate electricity and there would be benefits to the local economy.
• When asked to comment on how seriously we should tackle climate change, 51% felt that it was the biggest challenge the world faces. 37% thought that it might not be our biggest problem but that we should do something about it. 9% thought that there had always been changes in world temperature and that human actions didn't make any difference.

Technical details

Ipsos interviewed 502 Shetland residents by telephone using Random Digit Dialing (RDD). All fieldwork was conducted between 8-14 December 2006.