  The rapid uptake of renewable energy technologies in recent decades has
increased the demand of energy researchers, policymakers and energy planners
for reliable data on the spatial distribution of their costs and potentials.
For onshore wind energy this has resulted in an active research field devoted
to analysing these resources for regions, countries or globally. A particular
thread of this research attempts to go beyond purely technical or spatial
restrictions and determine the realistic, feasible or actual potential for wind
energy. Motivated by these developments, this paper reviews methods and
assumptions for analysing geographical, technical, economic and, finally,
feasible onshore wind potentials. We address each of these potentials in turn,
including aspects related to land eligibility criteria, energy meteorology, and
technical developments relating to wind turbine characteristics such as power
density, specific rotor power and spacing aspects. Economic aspects of
potential assessments are central to future deployment and are discussed on a
turbine and system level covering levelized costs depending on locations, and
the system integration costs which are often overlooked in such analyses.
Non-technical approaches include scenicness assessments of the landscape,
expert and stakeholder workshops, willingness to pay / accept elicitations and
socioeconomic cost-benefit studies. For each of these different potential
estimations, the state of the art is critically discussed, with an attempt to
derive best practice recommendations and highlight avenues for future research.
