Engineering and energy yield: The missing dimension of wind turbine assessment

The goal of optimising the energy yield of renewables sits uneasily with the politics and processes of planning for wind turbines. In countries such as the UK the land-use planning consent regime is not concerned with the energy yield of proposed wind developments. This is a matter for the developer rather than the regulator, which might seem curious given the policy commitment to maximising the potential for renewable energy generation and the need to weigh up local environmental impacts with emissions reduction. In this paper, we highlight and investigate the implications of the exclusion of energy yield from wind turbine regulation. The case is made for increasing the weight given to energy yield within Environmental Impact Assessment and the land-use planning process. - Highlights: • The 'engineering dimension' of wind farm assessment is discussed. • The importance of the energy yield in the planning for wind farms is reviewed. • An argument is put forward to why energy yield should carry more planning weight. • A review of techniques used in Denmark to optimise wind farm land use