POWER July 2016 - 43

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Avoiding Wildlife Impacts from
Renewable Energy in Europe
Courtesy: Ad Meskens/Wikimedia Commons
Europe has been in the forefront of renewable energy development, and
though the scientific research on wildlife impacts is limited, European environmentalists
and developers are beginning to create baseline frameworks
and guidelines. Developers around the world can learn from their experience.
Lee Buchsbaum
A
s more renewable energy systems come
online, providers hope to both make
money and protect the environment
simultaneously. However, some environmental
scientists and conservationists are sounding
alarm bells over impacts that onshore and
offshore wind farms and new wave and tidal
energy systems may have on avian and marine
wildlife-in particular, birds, bats, whales,
dolphins, and other sea mammals.
There is empirical evidence that onshore
wind production has negative impacts on
birds and bats (see the article " Weighing the
Environmental Impacts of Wind and Solar "
in this issue). But a bigger unknown is how
increasing numbers of offshore wind developments
will affect marine as well as bird
populations. Europe leads the world in offshore
wind development, and plans are under
way to continue to ramp up. Including
offshore production, Europe's installed wind
capacity could surpass 200 GW by 2020. Indeed,
worldwide, wind energy of all forms
is, well, blowing up. Though unquestionably
July 2016 | POWER
renewables are better for the environment
than fossil-fueled power plants, the enduring
struggle between economics and stewardship
is still part of the equation.
For maximum output and profitability,
wind farms are sited in open, exposed areas
where there are higher-than-average wind
speeds. This means that they are frequently
proposed in upland and coastal areas, potentially
affecting important habitats for breeding,
wintering, and migrating birds. In the
same way turbines utilize the kinetic energy
of the wind, birds often use that wind as their
propellant or even as " superhighways. " The
degree to which wind farms can safely coexist
with avian life is still an unknown, especially
as ever-larger wind turbines on- and
offshore are deployed.
Additionally, as humans keep developing
coastal, tidal, and deep ocean regions,
the noises created during exploration and
development processes become highly amplified
in the undersea environment. Many
species of marine life, particularly mamwww.powermag.com
mals,
depend heavily on sonar-like systems
to navigate, and those systems are greatly
affected by the sounds created during undersea
energy development and construction.
In much the same way that dolphins,
porpoises, and whales have been affected by
undersea oil exploration, they are getting hit
again as both offshore wind, tidal, and other
marine renewable energy systems expand
(see sidebar).
But precisely because most of these energy
systems are new, the extent of their actual
impacts is still relatively unknown. Without
much of an established body of peer-reviewed
scientific research, environmentalists
and developers are just now creating baseline
study frameworks and guidelines for future
projects. Given Europe's longer history with
renewable rollouts, a large portion of the published
research emanates from there. What
are some lessons that have been learned, and
what can renewable energy providers elsewhere
do to avoid the worst mistakes of their
pioneering predecessors?
43
http://www.powermag.com
POWER July 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER July 2016
