Worth a closer look. Wind turbines turned out to be more profitable than everyone thought
April 19, 11:30 Share:
Wind turbines placed on agricultural land are a profitable solution (Photo: pixabay)
It was previously thought that wind energy development required a large area of land, but the study found that wind energy infrastructure, such as turbines and roads, uses only 5 percent of agricultural land, with the rest often used for other purposes, including agriculture.
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According to Sarah Jordan, assistant professor of civil engineering at McGill University and senior author of the study, such data reframes the thinking about land use for wind farms.
Wind energy infrastructure can be more efficient if turbines are located in areas with pre-existing road networks and other infrastructure such as agricultural land.
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The study was conducted using geographic information systems ( GIS) and machine learning models on data from more than 16,000 wind turbines in the western United States. This made it possible to assess the land use of wind energy and identify factors influencing the efficiency of land use under wind farms.
According to the study, the developed method can be used to evaluate various energy technologies in terms of their environmental impact and plan zero-emission energy systems.
This opens up opportunities to compare the environmental sustainability of different energy technologies and provides a basis for future alternative energy solutions.