System impacts of wind energy developments: Key research challenges and opportunities

McKenna, R., Lilliestam, J., Heinrichs, H.U., Weinand, J., Schmidt, J., Staffell, I., Hahmann, A.N., Burgherr, P., Burdack, A., Bucha, M., Chen, R., Klingler, M., Lehmann, P., Lowitzsch, J., Novo, R., Price, J., Sacchi, R., Scherhaufer, P., Schöll, E.M., Visconti, P., et al. (2025). System impacts of wind energy developments: Key research challenges and opportunities. Joule 9 (1) e101799. 10.1016/j.joule.2024.11.016.

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Abstract

Context & scale
Wind energy is currently one of the cheapest renewable energy technologies and plays a central role in many countries’ climate and energy strategies. However, like any electricity-generation technology, wind energy affects and interacts with the broader environmental, social, economic, technical, and legal systems it integrates with. These impacts can potentially slow its deployment, delaying progress on essential decarbonization and energy security objectives. Solutions often exist, but challenges remain due to fundamental research gaps and limited understanding of the true scale of impacts. This article identifies four broad impact categories and fourteen individual impacts, which we systematically analyze through a review of over 400 scientific articles. We qualitatively assess these impacts in terms of importance and spatial diversity, proposing concrete solutions where possible, and suggesting directions for future research. We also demonstrate that some recurring issues are actually not substantial, such as bird and bat collisions, noise and health impacts, local weather changes, and market price impacts at low penetration levels. However, we identify several genuine issues that are currently hard to solve, such as lengthy planning and permitting processes, rare earth material dependency, the recycling of blades, visual impacts on landscapes, and integration into power systems at high penetration levels.
Summary
Wind power accounted for 8% of global electricity generation in 2023 and is one of the cheapest forms of low-carbon electricity. Although fully commercial, many challenges remain in achieving the required scale-up, relating to integrating wind farms into wider technical, economic, social, and natural systems. We review the main challenges, outline existing solutions, and propose future research needed to overcome existing problems. Although the techno-economic challenges of grid and market integration are seen as significant obstacles to scaling up wind power, the field is replete with solutions. In many countries, planning and permitting are immediate barriers to wind-power deployment; although solutions are emerging in the EU and several countries, the effectiveness and long-term acceptance of fast-track permissions and go-to areas remains to be seen. Environmental impacts on wildlife and recycling challenges are rising issues for which tested and scalable solutions are often still lacking, pointing to large remaining research requirements.

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