The German energy transition has come to a halt in terms of on-shore wind turbine deployment. This is to a large extent due to public opposition. Sensitive siting of wind farm locations in the landscape early in the planning process might help to overcome this problem. In our paper, we investigate different methods for visual landscape sensitivity analysis towards wind turbines that can be used as one input into spatial planning at the federal state or regional level, where strategic decisions for wind farm locations are mainly taken. Statistically comparing different methodological approaches, different distance decay effects with different distance weights and different GIS algorithms, we conclude that (a) large-area visual sensitivity analyses are possible, (b) the distance decay effect has a negligible influence on the spatial distribution of visual sensitivity and (c) that there are more methodological questions that should be empirically investigated in order to base strategic wind farm siting decisions on a valid information basis.