Spatial Trade-Offs in National Land-Based Wind Power Production in Times of Biodiversity and Climate Crises

Kristine Grimsrud, Cathrine Hagem, Kristina Haaskjold, Henrik Lindhjem and Megan Nowell
Additional contact information
Kristina Haaskjold: Institute for Energy Technology
Henrik Lindhjem: Menon Centre for Environmental and Resource Economics
Megan Nowell: Norwegian Institute for Nature Research

Environmental & Resource Economics, 2024, vol. 87, issue 2, No 4, 436 pages

Abstract: Abstract Energy generated by land-based wind power is expected to play a crucial role in the decarbonisation of the economy. However, with the looming biodiversity and nature crises, spatial allocation of wind power can no longer be considered solely a trade-off against local disamenity costs. Emphasis should also be put on wider environmental impacts, especially if these challenge the sustainability of the renewable energy transition. We suggest a modelling system for selecting among a pool of potential wind power plants (WPPs) by combining an energy system model with a GIS analysis of WPP sites and surrounding viewscapes. The modelling approach integrates monetised local disamenity and carbon sequestration costs and places constraints on areas of importance for wilderness and biodiversity (W&B). Simulating scenarios for the Norwegian energy system towards 2050, we find that the southern part of Norway is the most favourable region for wind power siting when only the energy system surplus is considered. However, when local disamenity costs (and to a lesser extent carbon costs) and W&B constraints are added successively to the scenarios, it becomes increasingly beneficial to site WPPs in the northern part of Norway. We find that the W&B constraints have the largest impact on the spatial distribution of WPPs, while the monetised costs of satisfying these constraints are relatively small. Overall, our results show that there is a trade-off between local disamenities and loss of W&B. Siting wind power plants outside the visual proximity of households has a negative impact on W&B.

Keywords: Wind power; Spatial analysis; Energy system model; Environmental costs; Disamenity costs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C61 D62 Q24 Q42 Q48 Q51 Q57 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10640-023-00764-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
Working Paper: Spatial trade-offs in national land-based wind power production in times of biodiversity and climate crises (2022)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:enreec:v:87:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s10640-023-00764-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... al/journal/10640/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10640-023-00764-8

Access Statistics for this article

Environmental & Resource Economics is currently edited by Ian J. Bateman

More articles in Environmental & Resource Economics from Springer, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().