A Bottom-Up Method for Feasible Wind Energy Potential Assessments, Turbine and Park Placement

Abstract

This work presents a bottom-up methodology based on graph-theoretical considerations to estimate the feasible potential as well as the economic costs of wind energy for the federal state of Baden-Württemberg in Germany on a wind farm level. Calculations are conducted based on high resolution land use data and wind speed data, using an algorithm to place wind farms by considering further constraints relating to land use planning. The feasible potential is found to be between 11.8 and 29.4 TWh, which is less than half than previous studies indicate for the technical potential since they neglect these constraints. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis reveals a strong dependency on parameters of land use planning, as they are very land-consuming. As an important input factor for energy systems models these results may improve the quality of commercial and political decision-making.