Evaluating Community Engagement and Benefit-Sharing Practices in Australian Wind Farm Development

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Lansbury Hall ◽  
Jarra Hicks ◽  
Taryn Lane ◽  
Emily Wood

The wind industry is positioned to contribute significantly to a clean energy future, yet the level of community opposition has at times led to unviable projects. Social acceptance is crucial and can be improved in part through better practice community engagement and benefit-sharing. This case study provides a “snapshot” of current community engagement and benefit-sharing practices for Australian wind farms, with a particular emphasis on practices found to be enhancing positive social outcomes in communities. Five methods were used to gather views on effective engagement and benefit-sharing: a literature review, interviews and a survey of the wind industry, a Delphi panel, and a review of community engagement plans. The overarching finding was that each community engagement and benefit-sharing initiative should be tailored to a community’s context, needs and expectations as informed by community involvement. This requires moving away from a “one size fits all” approach. This case study is relevant to wind developers, energy regulators, local communities and renewable energy-focused non-government organizations. It is applicable beyond Australia to all contexts where wind farm development has encountered conflicted societal acceptance responses.

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 2284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rômulo Lemos Bulhões ◽  
Eudemário Souza de Santana ◽  
Alex Álisson Bandeira Santos

Electricity generation via renewable sources is emerging as a possible solution to meet the growing demand for electricity worldwide. Additionally, the need to produce clean energy, with little or no pollutants or greenhouse gas emission is paramount. Due to these factors, wind farms are noticeably increasing in number, especially in Brazil. However, the vast size of the country and the poor quality of its infrastructure are among several factors that make it difficult for effective decision-making to accelerate the growth of this segment in Brazil. With the purpose of assisting government agencies, regulatory agencies and other institutions in this area, the use of a multi-criteria selection method called the analytic hierarchy process is proposed here to assist in decision-making and to select priority regions for implementing wind farms. This work focuses on a case study of the state of Bahia, in which 27 territories were selected for an installation priority evaluation. Computational tools were used to hierarchize these chosen territories, including Matlab, for the construction of the computational algorithm. The results indicate the priority pf the regions according to the established criteria, which allows installation locations to be mapped—these could serve as a basis for regional investment.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Christian Berg

<p>The erection of wind turbines, depending on their location, could significantly interfere with appreciated landscape values of a community, and consequently lead to its objection to a proposed wind energy project. This study explores possible options, which can be applied within the community consultation process to reduce the likelihood of substantial public opposition to wind farm developments in New Zealand. The research topic was chosen to support wind farm planners and decision makers in the consultation process for wind farm developments in order to increase public acceptance of a proposed project, to evaluate possibilities of benefit sharing and public involvement, to select the most appropriate level of community participation in the planning process and consequently to enhance the ability in gaining resource consent under the Resource Management Act 1991. The investigation covers the sequential development of public attitudes towards wind farms, the wider spectrum of public opposition, including vocalised reasons and hidden arguments, community consultation approaches and the different levels of public involvement. The applied methodology for this research comprises a case study approach concerning a New Zealand wind farm including an analysis of submissions made into the resource consent process, follow-up interviews with affected stakeholders, an interview with a wind farm developer, and a comprehensive text analysis. There are various opportunities to increase acceptance of wind farms including aesthetical design, sensitive siting, a pro-active approach, stakeholder analysis, participation and community ownership schemes. The results also demonstrate that increased community involvement may potentially satisfy consulted stakeholders, but could jeopardise obtaining resource consent under the current planning regime.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Thesis Depositor

<p>The erection of wind turbines, depending on their location, could significantly interfere with appreciated landscape values of a community, and consequently lead to its objection to a proposed wind energy project. This study explores possible options, which can be applied within the community consultation process to reduce the likelihood of substantial public opposition to wind farm developments in New Zealand. The research topic was chosen to support wind farm planners and decision makers in the consultation process for wind farm developments in order to increase public acceptance of a proposed project, to evaluate possibilities of benefit sharing and public involvement, to select the most appropriate level of community participation in the planning process and consequently to enhance the ability in gaining resource consent under the Resource Management Act 1991. The investigation covers the sequential development of public attitudes towards wind farms, the wider spectrum of public opposition, including vocalised reasons and hidden arguments, community consultation approaches and the different levels of public involvement. The applied methodology for this research comprises a case study approach concerning a New Zealand wind farm including an analysis of submissions made into the resource consent process, follow-up interviews with affected stakeholders, an interview with a wind farm developer, and a comprehensive text analysis. There are various opportunities to increase acceptance of wind farms including aesthetical design, sensitive siting, a pro-active approach, stakeholder analysis, participation and community ownership schemes. The results also demonstrate that increased community involvement may potentially satisfy consulted stakeholders, but could jeopardise obtaining resource consent under the current planning regime.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Christian Berg

<p>The erection of wind turbines, depending on their location, could significantly interfere with appreciated landscape values of a community, and consequently lead to its objection to a proposed wind energy project. This study explores possible options, which can be applied within the community consultation process to reduce the likelihood of substantial public opposition to wind farm developments in New Zealand. The research topic was chosen to support wind farm planners and decision makers in the consultation process for wind farm developments in order to increase public acceptance of a proposed project, to evaluate possibilities of benefit sharing and public involvement, to select the most appropriate level of community participation in the planning process and consequently to enhance the ability in gaining resource consent under the Resource Management Act 1991. The investigation covers the sequential development of public attitudes towards wind farms, the wider spectrum of public opposition, including vocalised reasons and hidden arguments, community consultation approaches and the different levels of public involvement. The applied methodology for this research comprises a case study approach concerning a New Zealand wind farm including an analysis of submissions made into the resource consent process, follow-up interviews with affected stakeholders, an interview with a wind farm developer, and a comprehensive text analysis. There are various opportunities to increase acceptance of wind farms including aesthetical design, sensitive siting, a pro-active approach, stakeholder analysis, participation and community ownership schemes. The results also demonstrate that increased community involvement may potentially satisfy consulted stakeholders, but could jeopardise obtaining resource consent under the current planning regime.</p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 02011
Author(s):  
Cristian-Gabriel Alionte ◽  
Daniel-Constantin Comeaga

The importance of renewable energy and especially of eolian systems is growing. For this reason, we propose the investigation of an important pollutant - the noise, which has become so important that European Commission and European Parliament introduced Directive 2002/49/CE relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise. So far, priority has been given to very large-scale systems connected to national energy systems, wind farms whose highly variable output power could be regulated by large power systems. Nowadays, with the development of small storage capacities, it is feasible to install small power wind turbines in cities of up to 10,000 inhabitants too. As a case study, we propose a simulation for a rural locality where individual wind units could be used. This specific case study is interesting because it provides a new perspective of the impact of noise on the quality of life when the use of this type of system is implemented on a large scale. This option, of distributed and small power wind turbine, can be implemented in the future as an alternative or an adding to the common systems.


Author(s):  
Maria Yalbacheva

The idea of achieving energy security and lowering the dependence on the global hydrocarbon market is at the top of the agenda in many countries. Most of them consider switching from traditional energy sources to renewable ones as one of the ways to reduce fuel import. This concept absolutely conforms to one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Goal no. 7, “Affordable and Clean Energy”). In May 2019, the Government of Uzbekistan Republic adopted the law on the Use of Renewable Energy Sources (RES). By 2030, Uzbekistan is going to increase the share of RES in the total structure of electricity generation up to 25 % (currently it is at 10 %), by building solar and wind farms with a total installed capacity of 5,000 MW and 3,000 MW, respectively. The energy-deficient Bostanliq district of the Tashkent region has become one of the places of interest, where transport infrastructure, recreation services, and renewable energy will be developed. The purpose of this study was a multivariate analysis, considering the meteorological, ecological, and socio-economic characteristics of the Bostanliq district, leading to the selection of the optimal location for the wind farm. The assessment map based on the results of this analysis made it possible to identify areas that are most suitable for the location of wind power plants. The assessment method, that was used in this work, is also applicable to other regions of the world.


2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-167
Author(s):  
Gino Iannace ◽  
Amelia Trematerra ◽  
Giuseppe Ciaburro

Wind energy has been one of the most widely used forms of energy since ancient times, with it being a widespread type of clean energy, which is available in mechanical form and can be efficiently transformed into electricity. However, wind turbines can be associated with concerns around noise pollution and visual impact. Modern turbines can generate more electrical power than older turbines even if they produce a comparable sound power level. Despite this, protests from citizens living in the vicinity of wind farms continue to be a problem for those institutions which issue permits. In this article, acoustic measurements carried out inside a house were used to create a model based on artificial neural networks for the automatic recognition of the noise emitted by the operating conditions of a wind farm. The high accuracy of the models obtained suggests the adoption of this tool for several applications. Some critical issues identified in a measurement session suggest the use of additional acoustic descriptors as well as specific control conditions.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morteza Bahadori ◽  
Hassan Ghassemi

Abstract In recent years, as more offshore wind farms have been constructed, the possibility of integrating various offshore renewable technologies is increased. Using offshore wind and solar power resources as a hybrid system provides several advantages including optimized marine space utilization, reduced maintenance and operation costs, and relieving wind variability on output power. In this research, both offshore wind and solar resources are analyzed based on accurate data through a case study in Shark Bay (Australia), where bathymetric information confirms using offshore bottom-fixed wind turbine regarding the depth of water. Also, the power production of the hybrid system of co-located bottom-fixed wind turbine and floating photovoltaic are investigated with the technical characteristics of commercial mono-pile wind turbine and photovoltaic panels. Despite the offshore wind, the solar energy output has negligible variation across the case study area, therefore using the solar platform in deep water is not an efficient option. It is demonstrated that the floating solar has a power production rate nearly six times more than a typical offshore wind farm with the same occupied area. Also, output energy and surface power density of the hybrid offshore windsolar system are improved significantly compared to a standalone offshore wind farm. The benefits of offshore wind and solar synergies augment the efficiency of current offshore wind farms throughout the world.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 167
Author(s):  
Wendy Sánchez-Casanova ◽  
Bendreff Desilus

This paper aims to examine the redefinition of rural actors and practices in the context of the Wind Farm Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. That redefinition addresses issues such as the benefits of wind farms, the role of the land in the use of wind energy, requirements for the use of wind, arguments of disagreement with wind farms, manifestations of that disagreement, and the feasibility of community wind farms. Adopting a case study methodology from a qualitative perspective, and “worded” data collected through semi-structured interviews, it was detected that, despite the disapproval of residents of the Oaxacan Isthmus due to a dispossession claimed to the Federal Electricity Commission (Comisión Federal de Electricidad, CFE) and private companies, many of the landowners in Ciudad Ixtepec have decided to become wind entrepreneurs by a community wind farm, facing opposition and mistrust regarding their capacities.


The Condor ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 114 (4) ◽  
pp. 711-719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Villegas-Patraca ◽  
Ian MacGregor-Fors ◽  
Teresa Ortiz-Martínez ◽  
Clara E. Pérez-Sánchez ◽  
Leonel Herrera-Alsina ◽  
...  

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