scholarly journals Deliberative Quality and Expertise: Uses of Evidence in Citizens’ Juries on Wind Farms

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Mehltretter Drury ◽  
Stephen Elstub ◽  
Oliver Escobar ◽  
Jennifer Roberts

When addressing socio-scientific wicked problems, there is a need to negotiate across and through multiple modes of evidence, particularly technical expertise and local knowledge. Democratic innovations, such as deliberative citizens’ juries, have been proposed as a means of managing these tensions and as a way of creating representative, fairer decision making. But there are questions around participatory processes, the utilization of expertise, and deliberative quality. This paper considers forms of argumentation in the 2013-2014 “Citizens’ juries on wind farm development in Scotland.” Through a critical-interpretative research methodology drawing on rhetoric and argumentation, we demonstrate that arguments relating to the topoi of the environment and health functioned as de facto reasoning, whereas arguments using social scientific evidence around economics more prominently interacted with local knowledge. The findings offer implications for process design to improve and promote deliberative quality in mini-publics and other forms of participatory engagement on socio-scientific issues.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 819
Author(s):  
Carina Juretzek ◽  
Ben Schmidt ◽  
Maria Boethling

Pile driving is one of the most intense anthropogenic noise sources in the marine environment. Each foundation pile may require up to a several thousand strokes of high hammer energy to be driven to the embedded depth. Scientific evidence shows that effects on the marine environment have to be anticipated if mitigation measures are not applied. Effective mitigation measures to prevent and reduce the impact of pile driving noise should therefore be part of regulation. The role of regulators is to demonstrate and assess the applicability, efficiency and effectiveness of noise mitigation measures. This requires both, scientific knowledge on noise impacts and the con-sideration of normative aspects of noise mitigation. The establishment of mitigation procedures in plans and approvals granted by regulatory agencies includes several stages. Here, we outline a step-wise approach in which most of the actions de-scribed may be performed simultaneously. Potential measures include the appropriate maritime spatial planning to avoid conflicts with nature conservation, site development for offshore wind farms to avoid undesirable activities in time and space, coordination of activities to avoid cumulative effects, and the application of technical noise abatement systems to reduce noise at the source. To increase the acceptance of noise mitigation applications, technical measures should fulfil a number of requirements: (a) they are applicable and affordable, (b) they are state-of-the-art or at least advanced in development, (c) their efficiency can be assessed with standardised procedures. In this study, the efficiency of noise mitigation applied recently in offshore wind farm construction projects in the German North Sea is explained and discussed with regard to the regulation framework, including the technical abatement of impulsive pile driving noise.


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.


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.


Author(s):  
Xu Pei-Zhen ◽  
Lu Yong-Geng ◽  
Cao Xi-Min

Background: Over the past few years, the subsynchronous oscillation (SSO) caused by the grid-connected wind farm had a bad influence on the stable operation of the system and has now become a bottleneck factor restricting the efficient utilization of wind power. How to mitigate and suppress the phenomenon of SSO of wind farms has become the focus of power system research. Methods: This paper first analyzes the SSO of different types of wind turbines, including squirrelcage induction generator based wind turbine (SCIG-WT), permanent magnet synchronous generator- based wind turbine (PMSG-WT), and doubly-fed induction generator based wind turbine (DFIG-WT). Then, the mechanisms of different types of SSO are proposed with the aim to better understand SSO in large-scale wind integrated power systems, and the main analytical methods suitable for studying the SSO of wind farms are summarized. Results: On the basis of results, using additional damping control suppression methods to solve SSO caused by the flexible power transmission devices and the wind turbine converter is recommended. Conclusion: The current development direction of the SSO of large-scale wind farm grid-connected systems is summarized and the current challenges and recommendations for future research and development are discussed.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 3615
Author(s):  
Adelaide Cerveira ◽  
Eduardo J. Solteiro Pires ◽  
José Baptista

Green energy has become a media issue due to climate changes, and consequently, the population has become more aware of pollution. Wind farms are an essential energy production alternative to fossil energy. The incentive to produce wind energy was a government policy some decades ago to decrease carbon emissions. In recent decades, wind farms were formed by a substation and a couple of turbines. Nowadays, wind farms are designed with hundreds of turbines requiring more than one substation. This paper formulates an integer linear programming model to design wind farms’ cable layout with several turbines. The proposed model obtains the optimal solution considering different cable types, infrastructure costs, and energy losses. An additional constraint was considered to limit the number of cables that cross a walkway, i.e., the number of connections between a set of wind turbines and the remaining wind farm. Furthermore, considering a discrete set of possible turbine locations, the model allows identifying those that should be present in the optimal solution, thereby addressing the optimal location of the substation(s) in the wind farm. The paper illustrates solutions and the associated costs of two wind farms, with up to 102 turbines and three substations in the optimal solution, selected among sixteen possible places. The optimal solutions are obtained in a short time.


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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 3050
Author(s):  
Eva M. García del Toro ◽  
Daniel Alcala-Gonzalez ◽  
María Isabel Más-López ◽  
Sara García-Salgado ◽  
Santiago Pindado

Silicon is the main element in the composition of glass and it has been seen that it can be used as a partial replacement for cement in the manufacture of concrete. Different dosages of glass powder and cement were applied to manufacture the concrete mixes. Initially, the characteristics of fresh concrete were studied, such as consistency, air content, apparent density and workability. Secondly, compressive strength tests were performed on the different concrete mixtures produced. The consistency tests allowed us to classify these concretes within the group of fluids. The air content of these concretes increased with the rate of substitution of cement by glass powder, resulting in lighter concretes. Density tests showed that this parameter decreased as the rate of substitution of cement increased. A coefficient k has been calculated for the substitution of glass powder by cement in the binder, using the Bolomey formula. Also, a mathematical model has been proposed to further analyze the experimental data. Major contributions of this work were to study the possible application of this concrete in different dispersions as a surface protection layer against the action of corrosion, in wind turbine foundations as well as the stabilization of the wind farm roads.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0309524X2199245
Author(s):  
Kawtar Lamhour ◽  
Abdeslam Tizliouine

The wind industry is trying to find tools to accurately predict and know the reliability and availability of newly installed wind turbines. Failure modes, effects and criticality analysis (FMECA) is a technique used to determine critical subsystems, causes and consequences of wind turbines. FMECA has been widely used by manufacturers of wind turbine assemblies to analyze, evaluate and prioritize potential/known failure modes. However, its actual implementation in wind farms has some limitations. This paper aims to determine the most critical subsystems, causes and consequences of the wind turbines of the Moroccan wind farm of Amougdoul during the years 2010–2019 by applying the maintenance model (FMECA), which is an analysis of failure modes, effects and criticality based on a history of failure modes occurred by the SCADA system and proposing solutions and recommendations.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2319
Author(s):  
Hyun-Goo Kim ◽  
Jin-Young Kim

This study analyzed the performance decline of wind turbine with age using the SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) data and the short-term in situ LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) measurements taken at the Shinan wind farm located on the coast of Bigeumdo Island in the southwestern sea of South Korea. Existing methods have generally attempted to estimate performance aging through long-term trend analysis of a normalized capacity factor in which wind speed variability is calibrated. However, this study proposes a new method using SCADA data for wind farms whose total operation period is short (less than a decade). That is, the trend of power output deficit between predicted and actual power generation was analyzed in order to estimate performance aging, wherein a theoretically predicted level of power generation was calculated by substituting a free stream wind speed projecting to a wind turbine into its power curve. To calibrate a distorted wind speed measurement in a nacelle anemometer caused by the wake effect resulting from the rotation of wind-turbine blades and the shape of the nacelle, the free stream wind speed was measured using LiDAR remote sensing as the reference data; and the nacelle transfer function, which converts nacelle wind speed into free stream wind speed, was derived. A four-year analysis of the Shinan wind farm showed that the rate of performance aging of the wind turbines was estimated to be −0.52%p/year.


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