Question: How much land is required to site wind turbines?

...Wind Energy uses land resources sparingly...

Wind turbines and access roads occupy less than 1% (one per cent) of the area in a typical wind park. The remaining 99% (99 per cent) of the land can be used for farming or grazing, as usual.

Since wind turbines extract energy from the wind, there is less energy in the wind shade of a turbine (and more turbulence) than in front of it.

In a wind park, turbines generally have to be spaced between three and nine rotor diameters apart in order not to shade one another too much. (Five to seven rotor diameters is the most commonly used spacing).

If there is one particular prevailing wind direction, e.g. west, turbines may be spaced very closely in the direction at a right angle to that direction, (i.e. North-South).

Whereas a wind turbine uses 36 square metres, or 0.0036 hectares to produce between 1.2 and 1.8 million kilowatt hours per year, a typical biofuel plant would require 154 hectares of willow forest to produce 1.3 million kilowatt hours per year. Solar cells would require an area of 1.4 hectares to produce the same amount of electricity per year.

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