Introduction: In the creation of any renewable energy project, the key to success is selecting an appropriate site to

build upon. This is even more vital in constructing a wind turbine or building a wind farm. Picking the proper site
allows for engineers to design a turbine to fit into the land and perform as expected. This spot also plays a huge role
in financial returns; ongoing maintenance of the turbine, ease of construction, and how much wind is normally
present in the location. Without consideration of location a turbine could become a multimillion dollar piece of
scrap.

Discussion: There is much thought going into every time a wind turbine and/or wind farm is constructed. From
issues with budget, environmental concerns, supply issues, and social problems, engineers and designer have to look
into every aspect of a piece of land. Most of the time a multicriteria evaluation approach is used while surveying the
location. “The use of decision making tools under a multicriteria approach are intended to aid the decision maker in
the creation of a set of relations between various alternatives”[1]. The location of the turbine also decides the design
of the turbine. If this design has any flaws or the turbine was not designed for a location, the turbine will most likely
fail. For example, in a study held in Krummhörn, Germany, researchers looked at the correlation between weather of
the are and the amount of lag days(the amount of time to fix issues) due to mechanical or electrical failures. “the
cross‐correlation between humidity and electrical or mechanical failures at Krummhörn is constant and notably
invariant with time. This result suggests a significant relationship between humidity and both electrical and
mechanical failures” [3]. Weather not only can damage the unit, it also has a huge factor in how much energy is
produced. Diving even further into this, R. J. Barthelmie writes that “efficiency also depends on atmospheric
turbulence and on whether the atmosphere is stable or not” [4]. With all these variables going into how a turbine will
perform in a given location, it is quite difficult to have a wind turbine to perform at 100% efficiency.

Summary: To find the ideal location for a wind turbine a series of basic questions must be answered; is it possible to
transport the turbine to the location, what are the environmental concerns are created by the project, are there any
social issues surrounding the project and lastly how much will it cost. Then once the location is selected, it is then
time to record how much wind power can be generated and how consistent the weather is. If any of these factors are
overlooked, the turbine would constantly fail or break over time.With no one solution for this differing
environments, research shows that multiple designs are needed to accommodate for the location it is to be placed.
While turbines seem to be the energy source of the future, I believe it will be some time before we begin to see them
across the world.
References:
[1]“05/01113 A multicriteria approach to evaluate wind energy plants on an Italian island,” Fuel and Energy
Abstracts, vol. 46, no. 3, p. 168, 2005. Available: Google Scholar, https://scholar.google.com/. [Accessed September
12, 2018].

[2]J. Klijn, “Ongoing 2b/3a inhibition In Myocardial infarction Evaluation,” http://isrctn.org/>, May 2012.
Available: Google Scholar, https://scholar.google.com/. [Accessed September 12, 2018].

[3]P. Tavner, D. M. Greenwood, M. W. G. Whittle, R. Gindele, S. Faulstich, and B. Hahn, “Study of weather and
location effects on wind turbine failure rates,” Wind Energy, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 175–187, Sep. 2012. Available:
Google Scholar, https://scholar.google.com/. [Accessed September 12, 2018].

[4]R. J. Barthelmie and L. E. Jensen, “Evaluation of wind farm efficiency and wind turbine wakes at the Nysted
offshore wind farm,” Wind Energy, vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 573–586, 2010. Available: Google Scholar,
https://scholar.google.com/. [Accessed September 12, 2018].