Wind diligence shares its skeleton with solar, site control, permits, interconnection, offtake, but the details diverge sharply: multi-year wind resource campaigns, turbine supply logistics, aviation clearances, and larger, more complex land positions.
This checklist covers the full review with emphasis on the wind-specific documents that solar-trained deal teams most often miss.
Wind resource and energy assessment
- Met tower and remote sensing campaign data, with provenance
- Wind resource assessments and long-term correlations
- Energy yield reports (P50/P90/P99) from recognized consultants
- Wake modeling and layout optimization studies
- Operating data and availability history, for operating assets
Land position
- Leases and easements across what is often dozens of landowners
- Setback compliance analysis: residences, roads, property lines
- Participating and non-participating landowner agreements
- Title work and crossing rights for collection and gen-tie routes
- Payment obligations and escalators across the position
Permitting, aviation, and environmental
- FAA determinations of no hazard for every turbine position
- Radar, military, and telecommunications interference studies
- Avian and bat studies with agency correspondence
- Sound and shadow flicker modeling against permit limits
- Local permits with tip-height and setback conditions tracked
Turbine supply and construction
- Turbine supply agreement: pricing, delivery, warranties, availability guarantees
- Transportation and logistics studies for oversize components
- Balance of plant and EPC agreements
- Crane and installation plans and their permit implications
- Service and maintenance agreement terms and term length
Commercial and financial
The commercial and corporate workstreams mirror solar: offtake or hedge documents with credit support, interconnection agreements and milestones, the project model, existing financing, and project company records. Hedge structures common in wind markets deserve careful review of settlement mechanics and basis exposure.
As with any project asset, the room built for this diligence should persist: repowering, refinancing, and eventual sale will each reopen substantially the same file.
Next steps
FAQ
What is unique about wind diligence versus solar?
The wind resource campaign and its statistics, turbine supply and logistics agreements, FAA and interference clearances, and much larger multi-landowner land positions with setback compliance analysis.
What are P50 and P90 in wind reports?
Probability-weighted energy estimates: P50 is the central estimate exceeded half the time, P90 the conservative estimate exceeded 90 percent of the time. Lenders size debt on P90 or stricter.
How long do wind resource campaigns need to run?
Buyers and lenders generally want at least one to two years of on-site measurement correlated against long-term reference data; shorter campaigns raise uncertainty and financing costs.