How much space do wind turbines require?
The wind is a diffuse form of energy, in common with many renewable sources. A typical wind farm of 20 turbines might extend over an area of 1 square kilometre, but only 1% of the land area would be occupied by the turbines and access tracks. The remainder can be used for other purposes, such as farming or as natural habitat.
To obtain 10% of our electricity from the wind would require constructing around 12,000 MW of wind energy capacity. Depending on the size of the turbines, they would extend over 80,000 to 120,000 hectares (0.3% to 0.5% of the UK land area). Less than 1% of this (800 to 1,200 hectares) would be used for foundations and access roads, the other 99% could still be used for productive farming. For comparison, between 288,000 to 360,000 hectares (1.2-1.5% of the UK land area) is covered by roads and some 18.5 million hectares (77%) are used for agriculture.
If we were to get all our electricity from offshore wind, a comparatively small sea area could produce as much electricity as used by the whole UK - a square with sides 77 miles long. This adds up to 40,000 turbines of 3MW in size, and assumes enough space between them for them to function efficiently.
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