Barriers to onshore wind energy implementation: A systematic review

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Onshore wind energy (WE) has achieved a significant diffusion worldwide, in spite of the existence of multiple barriers to the large-scale implementation of wind farms. These barriers have been reported in a large number of studies, but the literature is lacking a systematized overview of their categories and locations. Based on a framework for the analysis of barriers to the penetration of renewable energy sources proposed by Painuly [363], this systematic literature review contributes to addressing this gap, identifying barriers to the large-scale implementation of onshore wind farms by category (market failures, market distortions, economic and financial, institutional, technical, social and other barriers) and location (countries around the world), and characterizing them by the level of economic development (least developed, developing, in transition, and developed) and stage of diffusion (recent or advanced) in their locations. The framework showed a high level of fit with the case of WE and allowed the identification of 31 barriers in 159 countries. The barriers were found to be mostly present in developing economies with recent diffusion, although some barriers were found to occur broadly across developed economies, regardless of the stage of diffusion. The three most frequently observed barriers were the inadequate consideration of externalities, uncertain and unsupportive governmental policies, and insufficient transmission grids.