How To Spot Red Flags: What a Good Onshore Wind Site Looks Like
Wind Turbine Site Selection and Planning
Finding a good site for onshore renewables is part science, part art and entirely political. It’s a jigsaw of constraints, quirks and planning policy. With policy shifts nudging LPAs to be bolder and grid reform opening up new potential, the pressure is on to identify sites that actually work. From high-level desk-based work to painstaking site walkovers, wind turbine site selection is no easy task.
Below is a high-level guide to the factors that make a site promising – and the ones that send us running for the hills.
Wind turbine site selection: Red Flags vs Green Flags
| Red Flags | Green Flags |
| The site is in a dell and the air is still. | The site has a good breeze consistently. |
| A turbine here would overshadow someone’s kitchen window. | The site is in the middle of nowhere. |
| The site is right in the middle of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (National Landscapes nowadays). | There are no protected views and it’s nowhere near a national park. |
| A heritage asset on your doorstep. | Nothing listed in sight. |
| There’s no chance in hell you’d get an HGV anywhere near. | You could swing a turbine blade into the access point with ease. |
| You would need to spend millions laying cables to reach the nearest connection. | There’s a spot to plug-in within spitting distance. |
| Radar interference risk is sky-high. | You’re miles away from the nearest airport, airfield, telecoms setup. |
Sequential tests in the wind turbine planning process
If you’re building in or near a flood risk zone (among other sensitive contexts), you’ll likely need to run a Sequential Test to prove that you’ve genuinely considered less impactful sites. I’ve had the joy of writing one recently (with the help of various highly skilled specialists), working through layers of data; flood risk, designations, proximity to settlements, access, aviation, ecology – all plotted, sifted and discussed. Think of it as the above but at a much more granular level. I promise you that running a Sequential Test on sites that had not been in any way sifted would have been a hundred times harder so good wind turbine site selection upfront makes the process smoother.
Dealbreakers in the wind turbine planning process
If you take anything away from this (here’s hoping!), here are my top three dealbreakers:
- Grid connection – It genuinely doesn’t matter how perfect the site is in all other respects. If there’s nowhere to plug in, it won’t work.
- Land designations – Protected landscapes, habitats and heritage settings aren’t an automatic no but they do mean that your scheme will need to work a hell of a lot harder (expect time and costs to the max).
- Visual impact – You can’t hide a wind turbine behind a tree. A solid LVIA (Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment) can highlight both the risks and the opportunities of your site.
Policy and trends shaping wind turbine site selection
Some LPAs are getting bolder about allocating land for renewables in their Local Plans, which could change the game in terms of land availability and policy alignment. It’s also worth keeping an eye on recent grid reforms; watch for a shift to a prioritisation of schemes that are actually ready to connect.
Trends such as co-locating renewables with other land uses, community ownership models and proactive local planning are shaping a new generation of schemes. As site finding gets trickier, creative partnerships and early engagement are only going to become more and more essential.
Success through strong wind turbine planning
Ultimately, the long-term success of a renewables site comes down to two things: planning defensibility and practical deliverability. You can save yourself a lot of grief by implementing a solid and well-thought-through site selection process in the early days
rather than putting all your eggs in one particularly ropey basket. Because in the end, finding a good site isn’t just about ticking boxes, it’s about setting yourself up for success from day one.
Written by Beth
