The overlooked threat of land take from wind energy infrastructures: Quantification, drivers and policy gaps

Wind harnessing is a fast-developing Renewable Energy Source, but the land-associated impacts of wind power stations are rarely quantified. We digitized the generation of artificial land by 90 wind power stations in Greece constructed between 2002 and 2020 (1.2 GW) and found substantial land take impacts: 7,729 m2/MW (3.5 m2/MWh) of new artificial land, 148 m/MW of new roads and 174 m/MW of widened roads on average. Models showed that the number and size of wind turbines, the absence of other existing infrastructures and the elevational difference across new access roads increased artificial areas. The elevational difference across new and widened access roads also increased their length. New wind power stations in Greece will be installed at higher elevations and in terrains facing higher risks for soil erosion and soil biodiversity. An alarming trend of selecting mountains and forests and seminatural areas to sit wind power stations emerged in Mediterranean Europe (Greece, Portugal, Spain and Croatia). After screening 28 policy and legal documents, we found that land take is indirectly inferred in the global policy but more directly in the European policy through five non-legally binding documents and three Directives. However, the current European energy policies sometimes conflict with nature conservation policies and can accelerate land take. We underline the need for better quantification of land take and its consideration for sustainable investments.

KATI Vassiliki;  KASSARA Christina;  PANAGOS Panagiotis;  TAMPOURATZI Lydia;  GOTSIS Dimitris;  TZORTZAKAKI Olga;  PETRIDOU Maria;  PSARALEXI Maria;  SIDIROPOULOS Lavrentis;  VASILAKIS Dimitris;  ZAKKAK Sylvia;  GALANI Antonia;  MPOUKAS Nikos; 

2023-11-08

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

JRC133273

0301-4797 (online),   

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030147972302128X,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC133273,   

10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119340 (online),