Ecological and economic onshore wind turbine siting trade-offs in Norway

Expanding wind energy to meet net-zero targets increasingly conflicts with biodiversity and landscape conservation, creating contested geographies where socio-ecological values compete. Existing spatial analyses identify ecologically preferable sites but lack representation of system constraints and trade-offs, while most energy system models optimize technology deployment under cost constraints by specifying regional capacity limits, rarely encoding which specific sites become available under different ecological priorities. We address this disconnect through a spare-share scenario framework coupling high-resolution biodiversity (247 bird species, 5 bat species) and infrastructure datasets with electricity system optimization for Norway's 2050 net-zero pathway. Spatial allocation strategies spanning infrastructure-proximate concentration (spare) to ecologically guided dispersion (share) including collision risk minimization, habitat protection, and infrastructure concentration are examined. Analysis reveals that only 7% of Norwegian land area remains consistently available across spare-share scenarios, while 67% exhibits flexible availability depending on ecological criteria prioritization, and 26% faces universal restrictions. Ecological restrictions reduce onshore wind capacity potential 11-fold, increasing electricity generation costs by 19–21% per MWh while investment and operational costs rise up to 6%. Despite targeting divergent ecological priorities, moderately restricted scenarios cluster within less than 1% cost increase variation, reflecting biodiversity hotspot overlap that creates functionally equivalent constraints while achieving better system integration. Findings demonstrate that for 67% of land, which is sensitive to ecological priorities, spatial allocation decisions are not a technical optimization problem but require inclusive stakeholder engagements to navigate competing ecological and infrastructure values. The framework provides transferable methodological insights for regions balancing renewable expansion with biodiversity preservation.