International assessment of priority environmental issues for land-based and offshore wind energy development

Abstract

Non-technical summary A substantial increase in wind energy deployment worldwide is required to help achieve international targets for decreasing global carbon emissions and limiting the impacts of climate change. In response to global concerns regarding the environmental effects of wind energy, the International Energy Agency Wind Technical Collaborative Program initiated Task 34 – Working Together to Resolve Environmental Effects of Wind Energy or WREN. As part of WREN, this study performed an international assessment with the global wind energy and environmental community to determine priority environmental issues over the next 5‒10 years and help support collaborative interactions among researchers, developers, regulators, and stakeholders. Technical summary A systematic assessment was performed using feedback from the international community to identify priority environmental issues for land-based and offshore wind energy development. Given the global nature of wind energy development, feedback was of interest from all countries where such development is underway or planned to help meet United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change targets. The assessment prioritized environmental issues over the next 5–10 years associated with wind energy development and received a total of 294 responses from 28 countries. For land-based wind, the highest-ranked issues included turbine collision risk for volant species (birds and bats), cumulative effects on species and ecosystems, and indirect effects such as avoidance and displacement. For offshore wind, the highest-ranked issues included cumulative effects, turbine collision risk, underwater noise (e.g. marine mammals and fish), and displacement. Emerging considerations for these priorities include potential application to future technologies (e.g. larger turbines and floating turbines), new stressors and species in frontier regions, and cumulative effects for multiple projects at a regional scale. For both land-based and offshore wind, effectiveness of minimization measures (e.g. detection and deterrence technologies) and costs for monitoring, minimization, and mitigation were identified as overarching challenges. Social media summary Turbine collisions and cumulative effects among the international environmental priorities for wind energy development.

Great Lakes Wind Energy Challenges and Opportunities Assessment

“…In response, NREL, Advisian, and Pterra/Brattle conducted the New York Great Lakes Wind Feasibility Study (Figure 2). The study helped determine the feasibility of wind energy development in the New York State waters of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario through a framework that balanced environmental, maritime, economic, and social issues with consideration of market barriers and costs (NYSERDA 2022a From an environmental perspective, minimizing wind turbine collision risk for birds remains one of the top priorities for offshore wind energy development globally (Green et al 2022). The DOE-funded U.S. Offshore Wind Synthesis of Environmental Effects Research (SEER) project, a collaboration between NREL and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), recently summarized bat and bird interactions with offshore wind turbines.…”

Impactos econômicos, sociais e ambientais da geração de energia eólica em comunidades do Rio Grande do Norte

“…Muito do que a literatura aponta é no sentido de que a energia eólica é focada no atendimento das demandas das décadas seguintes numa visão de longo prazo, visando evitar colapso na economia. Estas fontes de energia renováveis exercem uma função imperativa para atingir as metas globais (Green et al, 2022), bem como a neutralidade de carbono, minimizar o aquecimento global e as mudanças climáticas, além de contribuir para o cumprimento do acordo de Paris (Osman et al, 2022).…”

“…Um equilíbrio entre os benefícios e as apreensões da implantação dos parques eólicos impõe procedimentos de inspeção, verificação e monitoramento com base na ciência, além de análises de custo-benefício que dialoguem com as metas de produção energética, economia e desenvolvimento sustentável (Green et al, 2022). A ciência contábil não pode ficar de fora deste quadro, com suas ferramentas de divulgação, inclusive as que contenham dados não monetários, e a concomitante inspeção da auditoria que dá confiabilidade, crédito e fidedignidade ao que as coprorações, inclusive eólicas, divulgam.…”

Joint responsibility in the development of effective wind-turbine collision-reducing solutions

“…While wind energy contributes to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, it can also affect biodiversity negatively, and thus necessitates balancing trade-offs between climate change mitigation and environmental protection (IPCC, 2011;Köppel et al, 2014;Kati et al, 2021). As wind energy deployment increases and larger windpower plants are considered, existing concerns become more acute and new concerns may arise (May et al, 2021;Green et al, 2022;Maxwell et al, 2022). One of the major environmental concerns are birds colliding with the wind turbines.…”