Wind energy theory of relativity: Why 500 m can be further than 700 m – especially on Mondays

June 2nd – Monday 2025 was a day when wishful thinking collided with reality. For children, it meant a brutal return to school after Sunday’s Children’s Day – a transition from cotton candy to math tests. For half of Poles – a heavy shock after the presidential election results. And for the renewable energy sector? Well… for the renewable energy sector, it was the day when hope for liberalization of distance regulations once again fell victim to political crosswinds.

There’s an old Chinese curse: «May you live in interesting times.» In Polish realities, this could be paraphrased differently: «May you build wind turbines in 21st century Poland.» Because every attempt resembles assembling a thousand-piece puzzle where half the pieces belong to a different set. Attempts where logic is replaced by distance regulations, and environmental procedures require reports so detailed they could serve as part of a habilitation thesis.

In March 2025, optimism briefly prevailed – «Distance law amendment adopted!» A light at the end of the tunnel! But as is typical in Poland: the tunnel tends to extend every time someone approaches the end.

Then came the elections. The difference so small you could flip a coin. If it weren’t for the fact that this one toss would decide whether wind turbines will be erected in Poland, or perhaps more commemorative plaques instead.

And somewhere in the middle of this entire battle stand the wind turbines. Or rather: they try to stand. The fundamental question is the distance from buildings – the desired 500m or the current conservative 700m.

Is 500 m from buildings a revolution, or just a cosmetic change from the current 700? Are those 200 meters a detail, or a barrier that could decide the future of green energy in Poland? Especially since more EU climate targets loom on the horizon, and the share of green energy in our mix must grow – regardless of who won the elections.

200 meters difference – 400 thousand hectares of losses

All presented figures are based on proprietary analyses of wind farm development potential in Poland and a map of areas suitable for wind turbine location in 500m and 700m variants. The analysis takes into account regulations for wind turbine placement, best practices, and GDOŚ guidelines (the General Directorate for Environmental Protection).

The total area of all municipalities in Poland (2,479 municipalities) is over 31.27 million hectares (approximately 312,720 km²). In this setup:

• Maintaining a minimum distance of 500m leaves approximately 890,624 hectares potentially available for wind investments, representing 2.85% of our country’s area.
• Increasing the distance to 700m reduces available area to 495,325 hectares, or 1.58% of Poland’s surface.

This means regulatory changes limit available land by 395,299 hectares, nearly 4,000 km². The share of suitable turbine areas decreases by 44% of previously available land.

And how does this change affect the number of municipalities?

In as many as 493 municipalities (20%), there isn’t a single hectare available for wind energy – even with the most liberal 500m limit. This means one-fifth of Polish municipalities effectively don’t exist on the wind energy development map.

At 700m, the problem affects 720 municipalities (nearly 30% of all in Poland).

The scale of the problem grows even more when we introduce more realistic assumptions – nobody builds a wind farm on 10 hectares. For many companies, the minimum viable number of turbines in one project is 4 units, requiring at least 50 hectares. This threshold represents the real «no-go» barrier for projects and locations – despite theoretically suitable areas potentially existing in the vicinity.

• In the case of 700m, this affects 1,379 municipalities – 56%! (Total area of such land: 8,280 ha).
• Even at 500m, 1,005 municipalities have less than 50 ha of turbine land (totaling 10,294 ha). These minimum area thresholds effectively eliminate every other municipality from the wind turbine game. Even if formally «some land» can be found, its fragmentation and division (below 50 ha) means lack of real utility.

These minimum area thresholds effectively eliminate every other municipality from the wind turbine game. Even if formally «some land» can be found, its fragmentation and division (below 50 ha) means lack of real utility.

Potential for concentrating investments in a limited number of municipalities

Since:

• Only ~1,475 municipalities have >50 ha for 500m
• And only ~1,100 municipalities have >50 ha for 700m
• The entire wind energy sector will practically be concentrated in about 40-45% of municipalities.

This creates risk of overloading local transmission networks – one of the key problems for renewable energy development in Poland – and will lead to concentration of development companies in this area. The result will be increased competition, queues in planning procedures, exhausted mayors and commune heads participating in countless meetings with renewable energy sector representatives, and concerned residents facing the vision of 100-150 wind turbines in their immediate vicinity (summing up each company’s plans).

Wasted municipalities

The great gap – 8,280 ha and 10,294 ha below the 50 ha threshold is wasted potential.

• Although the areas are substantial – over 19 thousand hectares (!) – they are practically useless due to fragmentation.

For municipalities that don’t have areas meeting current distance requirements (or wouldn’t meet them even after the law amendment), or where available investment areas are smaller than 50 hectares, it seems reasonable to consider a more flexible approach to renewable energy investment location possibilities.

Introducing differentiated distance parameters for low-power, low-height turbines would allow rational use of smaller, previously excluded areas.

Such scalable regulations would promote maintaining adequate safety standards and residents’ quality of life, while enabling wind energy development in municipalities currently completely deprived of such opportunities due to uniform, restrictive regulations that don’t account for local spatial conditions and investment scale specifics.

The raw numbers can indeed be alarming. Reducing the minimum distance by just 200 meters means losing 395,299 hectares of land potentially available for wind farms. Maintaining the current 700-meter rule significantly limits not only the total area available for investment, but primarily the number of realistic locations. When we adopt a realistic investment viability threshold (≥50 ha), the difference becomes even more painful – we lose 45% of potential locations.

But do these alarming statistics really reflect the full picture? Just 200m difference in practice turns out to have gigantic consequences for the future of wind energy in Poland. It’s not only nearly 400 thousand hectares of «lost» space, but also dozens of municipalities excluded from participating in green transformation.

Not only the scale changes, but also the geography of the entire sector – concentration of investments in fewer and fewer locations creates pressure on transmission networks, administrative procedures, and local communities. And all this due to a rigid boundary that accounts for neither spatial realities nor project scale.

Can this be solved? Before seeking answers, it’s worth taking a closer look at the technical aspects of turbine location and what actually determines a «good» location for a wind farm. More on this in the next part.

Grzegorz Nowak
Senior GIS Analyst