Balancing wind power deployment and sustainability objectives in Swedish planning and permitting

Abstract

Background Wind power is a critical renewable energy technology in efforts to achieve the global climate targets. However, local impacts do occur, which demands careful consideration in planning and permitting. Sweden has set an ambition to triple land-based wind power by 2040, and municipalities play a key role in both the planning and permitting process, due to a planning monopoly and veto power in the permitting process. This calls for an investigation of Swedish wind power governance, with a particular focus on recent trends in municipal wind power planning, how wind power is balanced in relation to sustainability objectives in planning and permitting, and insights from practitioners regarding their capacities and drivers. Results The results show that about two-thirds of Swedish municipalities have conducted wind power planning in some form, but this basis for decision-making has become outdated due to a lack of institutional capacity at the municipal level. Secondly, the study finds that many municipalities perceive that there are insufficient incentives for a continued wind power expansion. Lastly, the study sheds light on a large heterogeneity within wind power planning practice concerning how trade-offs between wind power deployment and other sustainability aspects are handled, as well as a lack of coherence between planning and permitting. Conclusions It is concluded that the current state of municipal wind power planning raises questions regarding the legitimacy of municipal decision-making in terms of perceived justice among local inhabitants and highlights the need for updated wind power plans. Moreover, to promote local acceptance in the future, formalised financial compensation and strategic initiatives that enable the localisation of electricity-intensive industry within municipalities with large-scale wind power production can be two key components. The results also highlight the need for additional support at the municipal level, including access to critical competence and relevant knowledge to enable trade-offs between the different sustainability considerations in an informed and balanced manner. Finally, regional dialogue with key actors, such as the military, Sami representatives and grid operators, would facilitate the handling of inter-municipal issues, in particular by fostering co-operation regarding inter-municipal wind sites.

An ABC-SVM based Fault Prognosis of Wind Turbines using SCADA Data

“…SVM tries to find an optimal hyperplane that classifies the fault data from normal data based on margin maximization, resulting in the formation of the following optimization problem. (2) subject to the condition 𝑦 𝑗 ((𝑤. 𝜎(𝑥 𝑗 )) + 𝑏) > 1 − 𝜖 𝑗 (3) 𝜖 𝑗 ≥ 0, 𝑖 = 1,2, … . 𝑛 (4) where "w" and "b" are the normal support vector and offset Value that correspond to the separating hyperplane.…”

“…In recent years, the gradual depletion of fossil fuels and their environmental impact, as proposed by Tao Li [1], have led to a manifold increase in research efforts towards Renewable Energy Sources (RES) like Wind Energy Systems (WES), Photovoltaic Systems (PV), etc. Among the various RES systems, as proposed by Haas [2] and Wretling [3] -WES is considered an alternative to traditional fossil-based energy generation because of its clean nature and efficiency, and is gradually replacing fossil-based power sources. WES in general, Wind Turbines (WT) are thus gaining importance in recent days as the world is recognizing their significance in attaining the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100 [4].…”

Coordination Challenges in Wind Energy Development: Lessons from Cross-Case Positive Planning Approaches to Avoid Multi-Level Governance ‘Free-Riding’

“…Recent policy changes in multi-level governance environments have led to three prominent cases, including offshore wind energy planning in the German North and Baltic Seas, which aims to install 40 GW of energy by 2030 through quantity-based area planning [53]. The Swedish approach to onshore wind energy involves a National Wind Energy Strategy that sets a goal of installing 80 TWh across the country and delegating high-level energy policies down to the municipal level [25,47,54]. Meanwhile, in Germany, onshore wind energy planning has implemented sectoral law featuring state-specific spatial targets and a spatial steering impetus to meet these goals for regional and municipal levels ( §1 (2) WindBG).…”