Environment Impact Assessment of Whitelee Windfarm Extension Project - Coursework Example

? Environment Impact Assessment of Whitelee Windfarm Extension Project Word count = 2450 words Table of Content Project Brief 1 Reason of Selection 1.2 Location and Description of the Project 2 Scoping under European Union Directives 85/337/EEC and 97/11/EC 3 Natural Heritage Impact Assessment and its Baseline Data 4 Legal Frame work and Legislation 5 Mitigation measures for significant Impact 6 Parties of the Project 7 Conclusion and Recommendation for Decision Making Process 8 References 1.0 Project Brief 1.1 Reason of Selection The project of selection is the Whitelee Windfarm Extension Project, there are several reason for the selection. The most significant is the wind energy potential of Scotland which owns 60 % of UK wind energy sector and specifically Whitelee which is the biggest onshore wind farm in Europe. According to Nick Medic who works at British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) the Government is looking to produce 14GW of Onshore Wind energy by similar projects (James Murray ,2010). This shows the fast growing trend of establishing wind energy infrastructure and it is evident that we are going to see many similar projects been commissioned. On one hand it is a very healthy step to shift from non-renewable fuels to green technologies such as wind energy but these technologies also have some issues regarding their impacts on environment and need to be scoped and studied. Another reason for this selection is that this project is an extension, so its impact on the environment will not just be doubled but increased many folds. As you can see in the figure that the extension project is adjacent to high density wind farming area shown in RED. 1.2 Location and Description of the Project Whitelee Wind Farm, is the biggest onshore wind farm in Europe Union, which started in May 2009. Located on Eaglesham Moor, 15km from Glasgow, Scotland, currently has 140 Siemens turbines spanning 90 kilometers and generating 322MW of electricity, used to power 0.2 Million households. Now they are going for an extension of the facility under which they will work on a 75 turbine extension . This means that Whitelee will gain an additional 217 Mega Watts of capacity. Work on this new development will commence in November 2010 and will be ongoing for approximately 20 months, with completion set for the summer of 2012(Scottish Power Renewable). The Whitelee project will use 69 Alstom ECO 100 wind turbines with a 3MW capacity and six ECO 74 turbines with 1.6MW capacity each. This expansion will confirm Whitelee’s status as the largest wind farm in Europe. “Simon Christian, UK director of ScottishPower Renewables, said “Whitelee windfarm is already the largest onshore windfarm in Europe and this extension pushing the overall capacity to 539MW will make it one of the largest in the world.” (Simon Christian) ? Site : Whitelee Wind Farm EXT ? Part : Eaglesham Moor ? Latitude : 55° 41' 13.1" ? Longitude : -4° 13' 44.4" ? Geodetic system : WGS84 In the above figure the green area mainly comprises of the wind farm and we can see that there are urban areas nearby which include Kilmamock and Hamilton. The next figure will give us the deeper picture of the extension and the turbine density in the gird. Where the blue circles show the planned extension turbine location and the grey show the existing turbines. As from the figure we can see that the extension will make create proximity of turbines to the urban areas(white parts of the figure) and therefore the turbines will have more adverse affects on the environment of the area and possibility of accidents will rise in these locations. At present this land is mainly used for grazing for livestock, agriculture activities and forestry. There has been an effective conservation of these activities before the extension but there is potential risk to them now as more turbines will occupy more spaces and construction of these facilities will require more restricted areas and spots. Same is the case with the visual amenity, where now the excessive number of wind turbines will overshadow other features of the moorland and blanket bog. 2 Scoping under European Union Directives 85/337/EEC and 97/11/EC As we are aware that all those wind energy project which have production capacity over 5 MW or have more than 5 turbines. Whereas Whitelee extension project is far above both criteria. Hence it requires even more critical and intensive environmental assessment. There are many aspects that are to be considered for this I have come op with my own small analysis which I call the PEST analysis, which considers (P for political, E for environmental, S for social and T for technological). The impact of a project mainly revolves around these aspects and should be considered when making an assessment, some are positive and others negative but to evaluate the feasibility of the project the overall positive impact is a must. In the wind farm projects the political aspects is lesser than others, where the local government gets political stability and elevation through these developments. Then comes the social impact of the whitelee windfarm extension project where more than 300 permanent jobs are created, then cheap and abundant electricity will boost local industry and development. Then it’s the technological aspect will help in forming a green, sustainable energy source which has almost carbon footprint. Then the negative influence of wind turbines on other technology is it interferes with the terrestrial television and results in to decrease in signal strength. It also has adverse effects on microwave links and which include the mobile phones and military communication. On the other hand the higher wind turbines with longer wing spans creates physical obstruction issues for Aviation traffics and this problem is coupled with the interference of wind turbines with radar signals and systems of aircraft as well as the airport. Lastly and most important is Environmental impact of the Whitelee WindFarm Extension project. In the EIA report this is would be the main focus and in depth assessment would be done. The scoping of the EIA will involve many attributes such which includes Natural Heritage, Habitats, Plant And Animal Species, Geology, Architectural Heritage, Noise, close To Roads And Railways, immediacy To Power Lines, Windtake and Bird fatalities these are those aspects that are scoped and analyzed for environmental impacts when the wind turbines are working and commissioned. Where as the processes and procedure that takes place during construction and then decommissioning must be considered as well during the production of Environmental Impact Assessment. Appendix 1 contains a detailed Scoping sheet which adapts the Checklist method of scoping. 3.0 Natural Heritage Impact Assessment and its Baseline Data As we are aware that the natural heritage comprises of mainly two sub topic or aspects, firstly the habitat and secondly plants and animal species that might be endangered or effected by the construction of wind energy projects such as whitelee extension project. The main difference of the whitelee windfarm project and other wind turbines is essentially that the whitelee wind farm is Onshore windfarm and that’s why the wind turbines interaction with human and animal activities is far more than that of offshore turbines. So as far as the human interaction is concerned the wind turbine are not much of an appealing objects for people of these areas and the visual impact has a considerable impact in these areas. Then secondly the whole area of the extension is barricaded and curtained off as show in the figures in the above pages which shows the site layout plan. The main focus of the baseline data would be the nature protection and the effects of wind turbine installation on the ecology and nature of the surroundings. Currently, the land consists “peatland, open heathland, blanket bog and commercial forestry”(ScottishPower 2010). “Disturbance to birds will happen; the largest concern regards bird strikes and their effect on bird populations and migration paths” (Petersen and Madsen, 2004).Bird fatalities are a major concern when there will be an extension in the same area, previously there was some area that allowed the birds to move their migration path but the new extension will block almost all the available space. The secondary data was unavailable due to the reason that the area on which the Whitelee Windfarm is carried out had no major importance in the past and no investigation or survey was carried out. According to available data the site is declared as peatland and blanket bog which is very much d affected by the construction activities when the huge construction cranes come to the area and then as we know that the turbines are of almost 5MW each, which are huge and will have massive foundation and excavation. Hence there is no doubt about the fact that deprivation of habitats through change or disturbance will occur, in particularly from interference with hydrology of the area which may rework of the surface or groundwater flows, levels and drainage patterns of the surrounding. In addition loss of habitats outside the project site, especially wetland habitats that may arise from pollution, siltation or erosion originating from within the porject site will occur. In this manner there will be immense affect on the habitat of the area in specific and natural heritage in general. The other half of the natural heritage is the plants and animal species of these areas. The species considered to be most at risk are birds of prey, swans, geese and divers. Also endangered are morass birds in the brooding stage and water birds (diving ducks and ducks) in flocks. Prospective impact on migratory birds and local bird movement may effect and their egglaying, feeding and brooding areas. 4.0 Legal Frame work and Legislation The most prominent among these are legisalation on the nature conservation of project areas for wind energy sector is Natura 2000. The Habitats Directive established the "Natura 2000" network. The network is the largest ecological network on the globe. It comprises special areas of conservation designated by Member States under the current Directive. In addition it also includes special protection areas classified pursuant to the "Wild birds" Directive 2009/147/EC. SACs and SPAs are collectively is called as Natura 2000 sites. Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) arise from the Habitats Directive (Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora) which requires Member States to set up a series of sites whose purpose is to contribute to the maintenance or restoration of favourable conservation status of habitats or species. Special Protection Areas (SPAs) arise from the Birds Directive (Council Directive 79/409/EEC on the Conservation of Wild Birds) which requires Member States to take extraordinary measures to protect habitats for certain rare or susceptible species and for regularly occurring migratory species of birds. Where as for habitat protection the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar Convention), the UK Government is committed to the conservation and wise use of wetlands, partly through the notification of wetlands of international importance as Ramsar sites. First legal texts or Directives provided by the EU include most environmental Development projects. These directives are 85/37/EEC and the amended 97/11/EC “The EIA Directive is concerned with ensuring that the likely environmental effects of proposed major development projects are considered thoroughly in order to inform the ‘development consent’ process”. (Purbbeck, 2008). 5.0 Mitigation measures for significant Impact Few of the mitigation measures for the impact on wildlife and nature conservation which were provided by United Nation Development Program, (Serbia EIA, 2009) 1 Effects of inclement weather in attracting birds and bats to lighted wind turbines, e.g. drawing birds (especially migratory birds) and bats during spring and fall migrations within the reach of the rotor blades of the turbines. 2 Use of acoustic, infrared and radar technologies to detect bird species existence, numbers, flight elevation and movements. 3 Efficiency of seasonal wind turbine shutdowns at preventing mortalities, including the feasibility of using “self erecting” turbines (easily erected, dismantled and taken down without cranes) during critical periods such as migrations. 4 Annual variability (temporal and spatial) in migratory routes; the use of the Geographic Information System (GIS) to assess migratory routes and stopovers, particularly for migratory birds and bats. 5 Effectiveness of deterrents: alternating colors on blades (particularly, effects of black/white and UV gel coats); lights (e.g. colour, duration and intensity of pilot warning lights; lasers); infrasound (Breco Buoys7, other noisemakers such as predator and distress calls if not irritating to humans, other wildlife, or domestic animals); 6 Parties of the Project Job Party Stage of Involvement Developer and Operator ScottishPower Renewables All Owner Scottish Power All Engineering design & consulting URS Corporation Ltd Designing and construction Energy Consultant SgurrEnergy Design and Post commissioning Construction and commissioning Morrison Construction Construction and Maintenance Infrastructure services Balfour Beatty Construction Local planning authority East Ayrshire Council East Renfrewshire Council South Lanarkshire Council All stages including public response and feasibility Advisors Scottish National Heritage Scottish Environment Protection Agency Scotland's Environmental and Rural Services For approval of EIA and Environmental Assessments Nature Conservation Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) WWF-UK English Nature British Wind Energy Association For production of EIA and Nature conservations and consultancy Affected Parties General Public and local residents 7 Conclusion and Recommendation for Decision Making Process The world is in a dire need of sustainable and green energy solution and wind energy can come up as one of the most suitable solution for the crisis especially for Scotland whose wind potential can make it an exporter of energy and the effective utilization of wind energy can boost its local industry. But all this come at some cost which is the minor environmental impacts which are mentioned above. We have come to a conclusion that wind although have some environmental issues but its repercussions are lesser than any other source of energy and further more the negative impacts can be reduced if sufficient research is done, hence making the systems far more eco-friendly and I am of the opinion that this source of energy can be developed into a zero impact source of energy unlike any other. References 1. James Murray . (2010). Scotland cuts ribbon on Europe's largest wind farm. Available: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/1804684/scotland-cuts-ribbon-europes-largest-wind-farm. Last accessed 10-03-2011. 2. Clare Wharmby, David Oglethorpe (2009). Environmental Impact Assessment. Edinburgh: Enviros Consulting Limited. 198. 3. Simon Christian ,SCOTTISHPOWER RENEWABLES. (16/06/2010). Press Releases. Available: http://www.scottishpowerrenewables.com/pages/press_releases.asp?article=64&date_year=2010. Last accessed 12/03/11. 4. Scottish National Heritage . (2008). windfarmFootprintMap. Available: http://www.snh.org.uk/pdfs/strategy/renewable/windfarmFootprintMapApril08.pdf. Last accessed 10-03-2011. 5. European Commission (2001). Guidance on EIA. Edinburgh: European Communities, 2001. 34. 6. Scottish Power Renewables. (2010). Whitelee Wind Farm Extension. Available: http://www.whiteleewindfarm.co.uk/about_windfarm/construction_updateconstruction_update?side. Last accessed 10-03-2011. 7. ScottishPower Renewables. (2010). Whitelee Windfarm. Available: http://www.scottishpowerrenewables.com/pages/whitelee_windfarm.asp. Last accessed 11-03-2011. 8. European Commission (2001). Guidance on EIS. Edinburgh: European Communities, 2001. 34. 9. Petersen, E. L. and Madsen, P. H. (2004) Science Direct. Wind Farms. Pages 449-463. [Online] Available at: https://vpn1.hw.ac.uk/Web/science,CVPNHost=www.sciencedirect.com,CVPNProtocol=http,CVPNOrg=full?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B7GGDCM9GC0F9&_user=273788&_coverDate=06%2F14%2F2004&_alid=1246820352&_rdoc=2&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_cdi=20148&_sort=r&_docanchor=&view=c&_ct=91&_acct=C000015798&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=273788&md5=8850e2a4d72d896ad2c72cc2e7e11c5c [Accessed 12.03.2011] 10. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Serbia (June 2010). GUIDELINES ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT FOR WIND FARMS. Serbia: United Nation Developemnet Program. 70. 11. English Nature, RSPB,WWF-UK, BWEA (March 2001). Wind farm development and nature conservation. UK: WWF. 20. 12. Whitelee Ext Ph 2 June 09 Leaflet, http://www.whiteleewindfarm.co.uk/about_windfarm/construction_updateconstruction_update Appendix 1 Scoping By Checklist Method Sr no Aspect Relevant (Yes/No) Potential impacts (positive) Potential impacts (Negative) Comments and additional Information 1 NATURAL HERITAGE 2 GEOLOGY 3 ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE 4 ECOSYSTEM 5 NATURAL HABITAT 6 Ecology 7 WINDTAKE 8 NOISE 9 SOCIAL IMPACTS 10 VISUAL AMENITY 11 PROXIMITY TO ROADS AND RAILROADS 12 INTERFERENCE WITH COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM Read More