To get the most money and energy out of the investment they need to be built where the wind is steady.

Nope.  They have to build them where they're allowed to.  

According to this recent study, the best sites for wind power in North America are on the coasts.  

But do you think they are actually going to build there?  No way.  Real estate's too valuable there.  Too many people with too much money.  They'll put them in small inland towns, far from where most of the power is used, because that's where it's politically feasible.

Here's a Dutch photo showing the scale against the landscape pretty well.

http://gallery.zoommagazine.nl/images/62400

I would be willing to have one or more of these nearby IF I knew I was getting a steep discount on electricity. I think that's going to have to be how this is done.

They you are stupid and reality will hurt you.

The pre planning process in my home town Linköping in Sweden were mostly an overlay of two maps. One with the wind distribution and one showing population density and special buildings like old churces. The areas with good wind and low population density have been designated as recommended areas for wind power. This has been made to prepare for an eventual building boom for wind power. But the recommended areas turned out to be fairly small and other parts of the country have better wind. The same kind of planning has been made almost everywhere especially in areas with better wind resources.

The planning process is slow although the legal costs are much lower then in USA. If nobody complains it takes a year to get a permit for a wind powerplant, if people complain it can take about 5 years, if a retierd lawyer complains it can take an extra year or so to get a final no or yes to such an infrastructure investment. The lenght of the process has at least cost us a paper mill or three as a nation. :-(

Municipal pre planning saves year or two for such a process.

How do it work in different parts of USA?