Increasing the share of renewable energy sources (RES) is one of the key measures for the transition to more sustainable energy production. The rapid deployment of RES facilities causes extensive changes in the landscape, which often provoke public opposition. The results of such changes are called energy landscapes. This research determines the noticeability of solar power plants (SPP) in the perception of the landscape, character of the energy landscape and its meanings. Unaware that this was an exploration of the impact of SPP on landscape perception, volunteers visited landscapes with SPP and documented their observations by photographing and writing, and then discussed them in focus groups. The results were verified by a survey of public opinion. The findings show that SPPs are a very noticeable objects in the landscape, as 25 of the 28 field trip participants took photographs of them. 42% of the photographs were described negatively, 23% mixed and 27% positively. For the most part, SPPs have been described as inconsistent with the rural character of the landscape, as they bring modernity and a sense of industrialization into it, and for some, the SPP's coherence with the landscape depended on its design. In addition to the visual and character mismatch with the landscape, participants often highlighted values related to sustainability when describing SPP. In the survey, landscapes with SPP were assessed as more modern and special. The results show that the energy landscape is not yet a recognizable type of landscape and that by careful design, especially by following the existing structures in the landscape, it is possible to improve the coherence between SPP and landscape and increase the social acceptance of the intervention.
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