Environmental Impacts of Renewable Energy: Gone with the Wind?

2013 ◽  
pp. 203-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktor Kouloumpis ◽  
Xiongwei Liu ◽  
Elspeth Lees
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Gone With The Wind

Reconciling Renewable Energy and the Local Impacts of Hydro-Electric Development

2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aylwin Pillai ◽  
Colin T. Reid ◽  
Andrew R. Black
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Recent Application ◽  
Protected Species ◽  
Hydroelectric Development ◽  
Approval Procedure ◽  
Local Impacts ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Scottish Executive

The UK and Scottish governments’ policy commitments to renewable energy, driven by recognition of the impacts of global warming and climate change, have led to increasing interest in all aspects of renewable energy. This article is concerned with how the Scottish Executive is able to reconcile new hydro-electric developments as a source of renewable energy with the local impacts of those developments. The outcome of a recent application for consent to construct a hydro-electric scheme at Shieldaig and Slattadale in Wester Ross provides an illustration of the issues involved. The local environmental impacts of hydroelectric development are considerable and the application of environmental impact assessment to the approval procedure for new schemes means that a much broader range of environmental impacts is now considered than ever before. The decision shows the importance of compliance with European Community environmental law, and is particularly interesting for its application of the precautionary principle to prevent impacts on protected species.

How clean is your ‘clean’ energy? The ENVIRO module for energy system models

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Martin ◽  
Cristina Madrid-López ◽  
Laura Talens-Peiró ◽  
Bryn Pickering
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Energy System Model ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Renewable Energy System ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Eu

<p>A decarbonized, renewable energy system is generally assumed to represent a cleaner and more sustainable one. However, while they do promise day-to-day reductions in carbon emissions, many other environmental impacts could occur, and these are often overlooked. Indeed, in the two documents that form the EU Energy Union Strategy (COM/2015/080) the words ‘water’, ‘biodiversity’ or ‘raw materials’ do not appear. This ‘tunnel vision’ is often also adopted in current energy systems models, which do not generally provide a detailed analysis of all of the environmental impacts that accompany different energy scenarios. Ignoring the trade-offs between energy systems and other resources can result in misleading information and misguided policy making.</p><p>The environmental assessment module ENVIRO combines the bottom up, high resolution capabilities of life cycle assessment (LCA) with the hierarchical multi-scale upscaling capabilities of the Multi-Scale Integrated Assessment of Socioecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach in an effort to address this gap. ENVIRO also takes the systemic trade-offs associated with the water-energy-food-(land-climate-etc.) nexus from MuSIASEM while considering the supply chain perspective of LCA. The module contains a built-in set of indicators that serve to assess the constraints that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, pollution, water use and raw material demands pose to renewable energy system scenarios. It can be used to assess the coherence between energy decarbonization targets and water or raw material targets; this can be extended to potentially any economic or political target that has a biophysical component.</p><p>In this work, we introduce the semantics and formalization aspects of ENVIRO, its integration with the energy system model Calliope, and the results of a first testing of the module in the assessment of decarbonization scenarios for the EU. The work is part of the research developed in the H2020 Project SENTINEL: Sustainable Energy Transition Laboratory (contract 837089).</p>

STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENTS FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT — COMPARING THE UNITED STATES AND GERMANY

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (02) ◽  
pp. 1340003 ◽  
Author(s):  
GESA GEIßLER
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Public Involvement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Hydro Power ◽  
Strategic Assessment ◽  
Environmentally Sound ◽  
Low Carbon Energy

Germany and the United States are amongst the leading countries regarding installed renewable energy capacity and are steadily adding new facilities. As balancing the strive for a low carbon energy supply with other environmental interests, such as biodiversity conservation, becomes more prevalent with increasing numbers of wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, and hydro-power facilities, the call for a strategic-level consideration of environmental impacts (SEA) becomes louder. The paper compares the practice of SEAs for renewable energy plans, programmes, and policies in terms of discussion of alternatives, consideration of cumulative effects, and public involvement. A case study analysis compares SEAs from Germany and the United States and evaluates their performance.Results indicate large differences between both countries, with Germany performing less well on average. Therefore, a strong need for improvement becomes obvious. A general conclusion is that both countries need to become more open to strategic assessment of environmental impacts from renewable energy policies, strategies, and legislation (policy SEA), in order to allow for meaningful assessment of alternatives and achieve an environmentally sound low carbon future.

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