Wind Power Deployment as a Stressor for Ecosystem Services: A Comparative Case Study from Germany and Sweden

The ecological and social impacts of wind power plants affect the provision of ecosystem services in many ways, mainly with respect to cultural services as well as habitat provision. These challenges need to be considered when a proper institutional framework for the deployment of wind power is to be designed to mitigate trade-offs between different ecosystem services. Understanding how the current institutional framework affects the spatial allocation of wind turbines and the related impacts on ecosystem services is a first step towards this insight. Using the cases of Germany and Sweden, we show that both noninstitutional and institutional factors may have a significant impact on the distribution of wind turbines. Their relative importance varies with geographical and regulatory contexts.