Value chain · CLM-1399
In plain terms
A US government lab found that a wind farm's whole site is about a hundred times larger than the land its turbines and roads actually cover.
The claim as recorded
NREL (Denholm et al. 2009) found an average total project area of 34.5 +/- 22.4 ha per MW (one standard deviation) for US wind plants of over 20 MW built after 2000, existing, under construction or proposed (161 projects, 25,438 MW), and a permanent direct impact printed as 0.3 +/- 0.3 ha per MW, which is 0.27 ha per MW from the table's own totals (37.6 km2 over 13,897 MW, 93 projects); at the UK 2025 onshore load factor of 24.02 per cent (DUKES 6.3) these are about 1,436 and 11.3 km2 per GW of average power, and at IRENA's 2025 global onshore 36 per cent about 958 and 7.5.
Scope and limits
Capacity basis only; the source states no CF. Total area may include land set aside for expansion and overlapping projects (printed p.23). Includes proposed projects; built after 2000; modern turbines may differ. Prefer CLM-1398's measured wind figures where a generation basis is needed.
What it assumes
The CF applied is not from the same plants as the land data (UK or global CF on US land data).
Where it comes from
Table 1: "Average Area Requirements (hectare/MW)" permanent "0.3 +/- 0.3", temporary "0.7 +/- 0.6", total area "34.5 +/- 22.4"; Total Capacity (MW) 13,897 / 8,984 / 25,438; Total Reported Area (km2) 37.6 / 61.4 / 8,778.9. Note 4: standard deviation reported; "the data sets do not represent normal distributions". Printed p.9: 26,462 MW "of proposed or installed capacity", 19,834 MW completed as of March 2009, 2,892 MW under construction. Printed p.22: "Excluding several outliers, the average value for the total project area was about 34 +/- 22 hectares/MW, equal to a capacity density of 3.0 +/- 1.7 MW/km2". Arithmetic: km2/GWav = ha/MW x 10 / CF; 34.5 x 10 / 0.2402 = 1,436; 37.6 km2 / 13,897 MW = 0.2706 ha/MW; 0.2706 x 10 / 0.2402 = 11.3 and / 0.36 = 7.5.
Basis: ha/MW nameplate, capacity-weighted average, 172 US projects >20 MW built after 2000, existing, under construction or proposed
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-007 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1399
CLM-1399, Energy Aperture, as of 2009-08.