The purpose must thus be to make the wind turbines and the landscape form a coherent unit emphasising both elements. . . . This is best achieved by . . . creating rhythm and order in the internal geometry. And with a significant distance to other turbines in the area. The latter theme of visually separating one project from another was emphasized in a 1984 study by architecture students at California Polytechnic Institute in Pomona, by landscape planner Robert Thayer in the late 1980s, and again more recently by Scottish landscape architect Caroline Stanton in her report, Landscape Impact and Visual Design of Windfarms. Advocates of dispersed or distributed generation in North America who are struggling to define just exactly what these terms mean will find Nielsen's suggestions helpful.
Clusters require special design consideration.
Because there is less interference among turbines, Nielsen suggests packing the turbines closer together in clusters than would be acceptable in larger arrays. From a distance, tight clusters are perceived as a compact installation. In the example at Klinkby, four Vestas V27 turbines were installed in a row four rotor diameters apart. The project totaled 13 turbines. After the turbines were installed, roads used during construction were covered over and revegetated.