Wind energy is running well ahead of its peers to deal with the demand–supply and environmental crisis due to fossil fuels. However, continuous exploitation of land led wind farms built in close proximity of dwellings of human beings, restricted zones, causing adverse effect on health and the environment. In this work, using a widely used model for wake and acoustic model (ISO-9613-2), the optimal number and locations of turbines in a farm has been determined while meeting several conflicting objectives such as noise propagation, energy, and cost. An index-based decomposition and repair strategy (iDRS) using different indices for grid locations and performing repair on chromosomes to enhance the performance of convergence has been proposed as solution methodology. Comparing with a well-established case study, the methodology is applied next to another realistic case, where the effects of the presence of practical constraints on the optimal layout are demonstrated. A designer can select a layout from several choices from the obtained Pareto set of solutions based on the permissible noise limits, cost obligations, and the extent of harnessed energy. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.