TROUBLES WITH A WIND FARM PROECT

Author(s):  
Keenan Nakagawa ◽  
Amarjit Singh

The Kahuku Wind Farm of Hawaii has been laden with controversy since its inception in 2011. Although it was one of the two wind farms on Oahu responsible for supplying a combined 14% of the island’s renewable energy in 2018, citizens have been outspoken in their criticism of the facility. Local residents have cited concerns regarding adverse health effects to the surrounding community, as well as deaths of native birds and endangered bats caused by the turbines. The impact on the Hawaiian hoary bat population has been a focal point of numerous complaints, as more bats are being killed than initially predicted. To the dismay of their opponents, eight additional turbines are being erected in Kahuku as part of the Na Pua Makani Wind Energy Project. And, as of November 2019, approximately 200 individuals have been arrested while protesting it. To add to the controversy, wind farm officials are currently facing legal hurdles, as challengers are skeptical on whether the project’s environmental review correctly estimates the number of birds and bats that will fall victim to this new development. The purpose of this study is to analyze and evaluate the issues associated with the Kahuku Wind Farm and Na Pua Makani Wind Energy Project, as well as the position and arguments of stakeholders and litigants.

2014 ◽  
pp. 123-127
Author(s):  
Frank O’Connor

The Irish wind energy sector is booming. In 2012, Irish wind farms supplied enough energy to provide about 15% of Ireland’s electricity demand and power 1.12 million households. In March 2014, The Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA), an organisation committed to the promotion of wind energy in Ireland, highlighted a planned €7 billion investment in the sector, with a confirmed project pipeline of over 180 new wind schemes. According to a recent TCD/ESRI report, this will bring the total number of jobs in the sector from 3,400 at present to over 8,400 and see a doubling of production of clean, indigenous, renewable energy. The modern wind turbines, which will be rolled out as part of these new schemes are a far cry from the turbines installed over four decades ago at the first commercial wind farm, constructed in 1980 on Crotched Mountain, New Hampshire, USA. A modern turbine such as ...


2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-207
Author(s):  
Yassir El Karkri ◽  
Aboubakr El Makrini ◽  
Hassane El Markhi ◽  
Tijani Lamhamdi ◽  
Hassan El Moussaoui

The present article focuses on the calculation of the wind capacity credit by integrating the Moroccan project on the wind energy of 1000 MW in 2020. After an introduction to the Moroccan Integrated Wind Energy Project, a wind capacity credit assessment program will be implemented on Matlab software including the whole information about “installed capacity, number of plants, failure rate, types of installed units, peak demand etc.” This program will be used to calculate the safety rate of an electrical system as well as the capacity credit of Morocco’s electricity production network. This section will be built in two phases: the first phase will examine the impact of TAZA wind farm with an installed power of 150 MW, while the second phase will focus on the generalization of this study on all the wind farms that will be injected to the Moroccan grid in 2020. The research provides conclusion according to comments and assessment of the impact of this electric energy integration based on the wind generation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 13-24
Author(s):  
Marcin Torzewski

Abstract Since 2009/10 Poland has experienced a dynamic growth of wind energy production. Currently, wind energy is the most popular resource of renewable energy in Poland. Despite the importance of wind energy for the Polish economy, there is no reliable and comprehensive research on the causal effects of wind farm facilities on property prices. The aim of this article is to critically review existing research related to the impact of wind farms on prices of nearby residential properties. The article concentrates on Polish as well as international scientific literature. Besides presenting the main findings obtained from the review of literature, the article clusters these findings based on information that is crucial to the analysis: methodology, data, and subject of study. The literature review is followed by a description of the characteristics of wind energy in Poland, which includes differences in the location of wind farms between Poland and other countries. The article concludes that despite the fact that some international research points to a significant causal effect of wind farms on property prices, these results cannot be easily transposed to Polish circumstances. Based on the reviewed literature, the article moreover shows directions for improving future analyses in Poland, particularly with respect to the methodology.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1691
Author(s):  
Seda Canbulat ◽  
Kutlu Balci ◽  
Onder Canbulat ◽  
I. Safak Bayram

Wind energy plays a major role in decarbonisation of the electricity sector and supports achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Over the last decade, the wind energy deployments have grown steadily, accounting for more than one fourth of the annual electricity generation in countries like the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Germany. However, as the share of wind energy increases, system operators face challenges in managing excessive wind generation due to its nondispatchable nature. Currently, the most common practice is wind energy curtailment in which wind farm operators receive constraint payments to reduce their renewable energy production. This practice not only leads to wastage of large volumes of renewable energy, but also the associated financial cost is reflected to rate payers in the form of increased electricity bills. On-site energy storage technologies come to the forefront as a technology option to minimise wind energy curtailment and to harness wind energy in a more efficient way. To that end, this paper, first, systematically evaluates different energy storage options for wind energy farms. Second, a depth analysis of curtailment and constraint payments of major wind energy farms in Scotland are presented. Third, using actual wind and market datasets, a techno-economic analysis is conducted to examine the relationship between on-site energy storage size and the amount of curtailment. The results show that, similar to recent deployments, lithium-ion technology is best suited for on-site storage. As case studies, Whitelee and Gordon bush wind farms in Scotland are chosen. The most suitable storage capacities for 20 years payback period is calculated as follows: (i) the storage size for the Gordonbush wind farm is 100 MWh and almost 19% of total curtailment can be avoided and (ii) the storage size for the Whitlee farm is 125 MWh which can reduce the curtailment by 20.2%. The outcomes of this study will shed light into analysing curtailment reduction potential of future wind farms including floating islands, seaports, and other floating systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 839-856
Author(s):  
Muhammad Tayyab Naqash ◽  
Mohammad Hasan Aburamadan ◽  
Ouahid Harireche ◽  
Abdulrahman AlKassem ◽  
Qazi Umar Farooq

Climate change and natural resource depletion are likely to affect the future economic development of a country. The generation of power from oil and gas is among the major causes of reserves depletion and global warming. However, renewable energy is also deemed a clean and green choice for power generation to promote sustainability in engineering. The coastal lines of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) are widely extended, and wind energy appears to be a viable alternative to traditional sources, which needs to be investigated as it is highly desirable to seek energy from renewable energy sources, for instance, wind. This paper is aimed at addressing the wind energy potential along the Red Sea coast of KSA. Afterward, a suitable wind turbine based upon careful structural analysis has been proposed, which would form a basis, especially during the machine selection and design phases. For this purpose, seven different sites located along the coastal line, namely: Al Wajh, Umluj, Yanbu, Rabigh, Jeddah, Haddad, and Gizan, were initially selected to assess the wind energy availability. After that, a suitable turbine is recommended for yielding maximum output. It has been found from the reconnaissance that Al Wajh has sufficient land availability that receives high perennial wind speed, alongside shallow offshore water depth for monopile installation. Hence, this site is recommended for the development of a wind farm. Furthermore, turbines need to be installed at the height of almost 100 m to produce maximum energy to appropriately utilize the available indigenous wind energy. It is pertinent to mention that the superstructure of the turbines is designed based on the local loading conditions (wind, currents, waves, etc.) of the Al Wajh region. Also, the monopile substructures are proposed in the selected area in accordance with the available bathymetry.


Author(s):  
Shannon Clark ◽  
Linda Courtenay Botterill

The development of wind energy in Australia has been subject to ongoing public debate and has been characterised by concerns over the health impacts of wind turbines. Using discursive psychology, we examine ‘wind turbine syndrome’ as a contested illness and analyse how people build and undermine divergent arguments about wind-farm health effects. This article explores two facets of the dispute. First, we consider how participants construct ‘facts’ about the health effects of wind farms. We examine rhetorical resources used to construct wind farms as harmful or benign. Second, we examine the local negotiation of the legitimacy of health complaints. In the research interviews examined, even though interviewees treat those who report experiencing symptoms from wind farms as having primary rights to narrate their own experience, this epistemic primacy does not extend to the ability to ‘correctly’ identify symptoms’ cause. As a result, the legitimacy of health complaints is undermined. Wind turbine syndrome is an example of a contested illness that is politically controversial. We show how stake, interest and legitimacy are particularly relevant for participants’ competing descriptions about the ‘facts’ of wind turbine health effects.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 5266
Author(s):  
Aurore Dupré ◽  
Philippe Drobinski ◽  
Jordi Badosa ◽  
Christian Briard ◽  
Peter Tankov

In recent years, environmental concerns resulted in an increase in the use of renewable resources such as wind energy. However, high penetration of the wind power is a challenge due to the intermittency of this resource. In this context, the wind energy forecasting has become a major issue. In particular, for the end users of wind energy forecasts, a critical but often neglected issue is the economic value of the forecast. In this work, we investigate the economic value of forecasting from 30 min to 3 h ahead, also known as nowcasting. Nowcasting is mainly used to inform trading decisions in the intraday market. Two sources of uncertainty affecting wind farm revenues are investigated, namely forecasting errors and price variations. The impact of these uncertainties is assessed for six wind farms and several balancing strategies using market data. Results are compared with the baseline case of no nowcasting and with the idealized case of perfect nowcast. The three settings show significant differences while the impact of the choice of a specific balancing strategy appears minor.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Lombard

Thirteen onshore wind farm projects, totalling approximately 700 wind turbines, are proposed for the West Coast Region (WCR) of the Western Cape Province in South Africa. Wind energy exploitation possesses the ability to transform what can be classified as natural landscapes into landscapes of power, making the type of landscape on which wind turbines are deployed a prominent factor in its social acceptance or rejection. This paper examines the landscape aesthetics and land use interference of proposed wind farms in the WCR of South Africa through determining if social acceptance or rejection of proposed wind farms is dependent on the residents and visitors scenic and land use valuation of the natural landscape. The results indicate that the visual intrusion of wind turbines is the impact that respondents are least concerned with contrasting with the findings of international literature and further reasons for this anomaly are interrogated against the background of South Africa’s dire electricity needs. The paper concludes that visual impact assessments alone are not sufficient for evaluating landscapes and this paper recommends that participatory geographic information systems (PGIS) be used in addition to existing wind energy landscape assessments.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 745-754
Author(s):  
Otávio Augusto de Oliveira Lima Barra ◽  
Fábio Perdigão Vasconcelos ◽  
Danilo Vieira dos Santos ◽  
Adely Pereira Silveira

O Brasil é um país com uma extensa linha de costa, são cerca de 7.367 km de extensão do seu litoral, com um potencial natural para a geração de energia eólica. O estado do Ceará é um dos maiores produtores de energia eólica para o país, obtendo notoriedade e a necessidade de manutenção dos seus parques eólicos, especialmente se instalados em zonas de costa, onde há uma grande dinâmica natural. O presente trabalho, busca o acompanhamento das dinâmicas morfológicas na praia de Volta do Rio, localizada em Acaraú/CE, que fica a cerca de 238 km de Fortaleza/CE. Os dados coletados em idas à campo, constataram que há um forte processo erosivo atuante na praia de Volta do Rio, o que alerta para a contenção do avanço marinho sob o parque eólico presente no local. A erosão é um fenômeno natural que trabalha na modelação de demasiadas formas terrestres. No litoral, isso não é diferente, por ser um ambiente altamente dinâmico onde há a interação entre continente, atmosfera e oceano, sendo possível encontrar diversos atuantes que podem intensificar os processos erosivos, sejam eles o vento, maré, ou por intervenções humanas, como construções e ocupações indevidas ao longo da linha de costa.Palavras Chave: Volta do Rio; Energia Eólica; Erosão. ABSTRACTBrazil is a country with an extensive coastline, about 7,367 km of coastline, with a natural potential for wind power generation. The state of Ceará is one of the largest producers of wind energy for the country, obtaining notoriety and required maintenance of its wind farms, especially if located in coastal areas, where there is a great natural dynamic. The present work seeks the movement of morphological dynamics in the beach of Volta do Rio, located in Acaraú/CE, which is about 238 km from Fortaleza/CE. The data collected in the field found that there is a strong erosive process on the Beach of Volta do Rio, which warns about the expansion of advanced marine on the wind farm present on site. Erosion is a natural phenomenon that works in the modeling of many hearth forms. On the coast, this is not different, considering a highly dynamic environment in which there is an interaction between continent, atmosphere and ocean, being possible to find many factors that can intensify the erosive processes, such as wind, tide, or human intervention, as constructions and improper occupations along the coast line.Key words: Volta do Rio; Wind Energy; Erosion. RESUMENBrasil es un país con una extensa costa, cerca de 7.367 km de costa, con un potencial natural para la generación de energía eólica. El estado del Ceará es uno de los mayores productores de energía eólica del país, ganando notoriedad y la necesidad de mantener sus parques eólicos, especialmente si está instalado en zonas costeras, donde existe una gran dinámica natural. La presente investigación tiene como objetivo monitorear la dinámica morfológica en la playa de Vuelta del Rio, ubicada en Acaraú / CE, que está a unos 238 km de Fortaleza / CE. Los datos recopilados en los viajes de campo, encontraron que hay un fuerte proceso erosivo en la playa de Vuelta del Rio, que advierte sobre la contención del avance marino bajo el parque eólico presente en el sitio. La erosión es un fenómeno natural que funciona en el modelado de muchas formas terrestres. En la costa, esto no es diferente, ya que es un entorno altamente dinámico donde existe la interacción entre el continente, la atmósfera y el océano, permitiendo encontrar varios actores que pueden intensificar los procesos erosivos, ya sea viento, marea o intervenciones humanas, como edificios y ocupaciones inadecuadas a lo largo de la costa.Palabras clave: Vuelta del Río; Energía Eólica; Erosión.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 693
Author(s):  
Anna Dóra Sæþórsdóttir ◽  
Margrét Wendt ◽  
Edita Tverijonaite

The interest in harnessing wind energy keeps increasing globally. Iceland is considering building its first wind farms, but its landscape and nature are not only a resource for renewable energy production; they are also the main attraction for tourists. As wind turbines affect how the landscape is perceived and experienced, it is foreseeable that the construction of wind farms in Iceland will create land use conflicts between the energy sector and the tourism industry. This study sheds light on the impacts of wind farms on nature-based tourism as perceived by the tourism industry. Based on 47 semi-structured interviews with tourism service providers, it revealed that the impacts were perceived as mostly negative, since wind farms decrease the quality of the natural landscape. Furthermore, the study identified that the tourism industry considered the following as key factors for selecting suitable wind farm sites: the visibility of wind turbines, the number of tourists and tourist attractions in the area, the area’s degree of naturalness and the local need for energy. The research highlights the importance of analysing the various stakeholders’ opinions with the aim of mitigating land use conflicts and socioeconomic issues related to wind energy development.


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