Comparative wind farm planning on a high plateau: Dust dispersion as a sitting constraint

•WFs in small hills can be more productive compared to strictly mountainous terrain.•Limited space for WFs in mountains “squeezes” WTs, increasing losses 2–4.5%.•WFs installed near dust dispersion sites is effective only with repeated cleaning. In the current paper, the wind potential of a relatively flat area in central Peloponnese in Greece has been studied. The chosen region was selected based on environmental criteria and the wind speed was correlated based on the measurements of three specific mountainous sites in the wider plateau area using a Wind Resource Analysis (WRA) modeling methodology. Digital elevation data sets were used for the modeling procedure together with the Wind Atlas Analysis Program for the correlation process and the basic aim was to evaluate and identify appropriate sites for wind farm development within the flat area and compare the estimated net power output with the net power output from mountainous sites in the wider central Peloponnese area. Dust dispersion mapping from mining operations in the area contributed also to defining the physical boundaries for wind farm development.