| Summary: | Wind power is becoming an increasingly important source of energy. There are several national and international goals set to increase to amount of renewable energy, and in order to meet these goals, the wind power production plays an important part and the establishment of new wind power farms are required. The Swedish national project Riksintresse Vindbruk has appointed areas in Sweden suitable for wind power, mainly when looking at the physical wind conditions of the area. In this study, I aim to define suitable areas for wind power establishment in Norrbottens län. In order to reach this goal, a critical regional method was developed and completed using GIS. The method can be divided into three parts. First, defining criteria’s for suitable areas for wind power production and create a excluding layer for each in GIS. The Nine criteria’s that were defined includes wind conditions, minimum area, distance to buildings and urban areas, areas with water, areas under protection, slope, security distances and distance to roads. The criteria’s were formulated using Riksintresse Vindbruk, Miljöbalken and previous studies. Second, combine the layers and compare it to an excluding layer showing areas with appropriate wind conditions. Third, calculate the area of the polygons that resulted from step 2 to exclude areas that does not fit the size-criteria. The study identified 18 areas that are suitable for wind power establishment according to the criteria’s of this study. The vast majority of the 18 were situated in Piteå kommun, in the southeast of Norrbotten. 0, 18 % of Norrbottens area was defined as suitable for wind power establishment using the developed method. The method developed in this study could be considered too critical and that more areas in Norrbottens län are suitable for wind power establishment. However, the 18 areas identified could be considered a good starting point when looking for areas for wind power establishment.
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