Projected wind energy on forest land – A land use transition trajectory to reach 100% renewable energy goal in Sweden

Transmission to renewable energy through wind energy challenges traditional land uses and existing landscape planning. Using Sweden as a case study, we quantified the spatial overlap between land cover and landownership with the projected onshore wind energy in five ecoregions, following the national strategy for wind energy production to meet 100% renewable energy production by 2040. Projected wind energy claims forests that are available for active forestry, woodlands not used by forestry and forests with high conservation value. Claims vary among ecoregions, emphasizing the need for regionalized context-specific planning to mitigate possible conflicts among different national and international environmental and sustainability goals.