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Resource Documents: Environment (296 items)
Unless indicated otherwise, documents presented here are not the product of nor are they necessarily endorsed by National Wind Watch. Nor should it be implied that the sources and writers endorse National Wind Watch. These resource documents are shared here to assist anyone wishing to research the issue of industrial wind power and the impacts of its development. The information should be evaluated by each reader to come to their own conclusions about the many areas of debate. • The copyrights reside with the sources indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations.
Well Hidden and Distorted Costs of Renewables: A Comprehensive Comparison of Wind Power and Combined Cycle Gas Turbine Plant
Author: Ciccone, Terigi
I. Introduction: The Critical Need for Reliable Power in an Electrified World Wind power looks cheap on paper thanks to metrics like LCOE, but making it as reliable and robust as a natural gas plant requires massive overbuilds, backups, and infrastructure—ballooning actual total system costs by 5-40 times higher. Here’s the full breakdown. Consider the following scenarios: A hospital operating room loses power during a complex surgery, causing monitors to fail and life-support systems to shut down, endangering patients in . . .
More »Seawater intake and discharge for offshore substation cooling: Sunrise Wind Project
Author: Sunrise Wind
Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Sunrise Wind Project: Volume 1 (https://www.boem.gov/renewable-energy/state-activities/sunrise-wind-final-environmental-impact-statement-feis-commercial) Operation of the OCS-DC [offshore converter station] would require the continuous withdrawal and discharge of non-contact cooling water. The daily DIF [design intake flow] for the OCS-DC would be 8.1 mgd [million gallons per day], and the daily average intake flow would range from 4.0 to 5.3 mgd. The maximum daily average discharge temperature would be 90°F, and the daily average discharge temperature would be 86°F. The vertical . . .
More »Impacts of onshore wind energy production on biodiversity
Author: Katzner, Todd; Nelson, David; Marques, Ana Teresa; Voigt, Christian; et al.
Abstract: Wind is increasingly used as a renewable source of energy worldwide. However, harvesting wind energy can have negative consequences for biodiversity. In this Review, we summarize the growth of onshore wind power, its impacts on species and ecosystems, and how those impacts are assessed and mitigated. Across the construction, operation and decommissioning stages, wind facilities are associated with wildlife fatality and behavioural change as well as alteration, loss and fragmentation of terrestrial and aerial habitat. These negative consequences can . . .
More »Offshore wind energy: assessing trace element inputs and the risks for co-location of aquaculture
Author: Watson, Gordon; et al.
Abstract: Co-locating aquaculture with Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs) is a novel global energy sustainability policy driver. However, trace elements (TEs) from turbine corrosion-protection systems could generate significant ecosystem, economic, and human health risks. We calculate annual inputs for current European OWF capacity (30 GW) as: 3219 t aluminium, 1148 t zinc and 1.9 t indium, but these will increase ~12× by 2050, eclipsing known discharges. However, a paucity of industry data makes it impossible to compare water and sediment TE concentrations at operational OWFs . . .
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