Impact Of Wind Energy Research Articles

Feasibility of Natural Fibre Usage for Wind Turbine Blade Components: A Structural and Environmental Assessment

There are two key areas of development across wind turbine blade lifecycles with the potential to reduce the impact of wind energy generation: (1) deploying lower-impact materials in blade structures and (2) developing low-impact blade recycling solution(s). This work evaluates the feasibility of using natural fibres to replace traditional glass and carbon fibres within state-of-the-art offshore blades. The structural design of blades was performed using Aeroelastic Turbine Optimisation Methods and lifecycle assessment was conducted to evaluate the environmental impact of designs. This enabled the matching of blade designs with preferred waste treatment strategies for the lowest impact across the blade lifecycle. Flax and hemp fibres were the most promising solutions; however, they should be restricted to use in stiffness-driven, bi-axial plies. It was found that flax, hemp, and basalt deployment could reduce Cradle-to-Gate Global Warming Potential (GWP) by around 6%, 7%, and 8%, respectively. Cement kiln co-processing and mechanical recycling strategies were found to significantly reduce Cradle-to-Grave GWP and should be the prioritised strategies for scrap blades. Irrespective of design, carbon fibre production was found to be the largest contributor to the blade GWP. Lower-impact alternatives to current carbon fibre production could therefore provide a significant reduction in wind energy impact and should be a priority for wind decarbonisation.

A Novel Approach for Dynamic Analysis of Wind-Integrated Multi-Machine Power Systems

Indeed, the rapid expansion of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in recent years has brought about numerous benefits, including reduced carbon emissions, increased energy independence, and the creation of new economic opportunities. However, integrating these variable and intermittent sources into existing power systems poses several challenges for power system management. Faults in electrical networks are among the key factors and sources of network disturbances. Control and automation strategies are among the key fault clearing techniques responsible for the safe operation of the system. In recent years, the increasing penetration of wind energy in multi-machine power systems has posed unique challenges to power grid stability and reliability. Accurate assessment methodologies are required to ensure the effective integration of wind energy sources while maintaining grid stability. Several researchers have revealed various constraints of control and automation strategies such as a slow dynamic response, the inability to switch the network on and off remotely, a high fault clearing time and loss minimization. It's important to note that the impact of wind energy on system inertia is a complex and dynamic aspect of power system operation. Ongoing research and technological advancements aim to improve the integration of wind and other renewable energy sources while ensuring grid stability and reliability. As the energy transition continues, addressing these technical challenges is crucial for building a sustainable and resilient power system. In this paper, the influence of doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) penetration is analyzed to examine the transient stability of power system networks. The concept of a Coupling Strength Index (CSI) derived from Network Structural Characteristics Theory sounds intriguing, especially in the context of identifying critical elements susceptible to the impact of a three-phase fault in a network. The investigation involves studying the transient stability of a power system under different conditions, specifically with and without doubly-fed induction generators (DFIGs) connected to a weak bus. Additionally, a three-phase fault is applied at the middle of the identified weakest line for both the IEEE 9 and 39 bus systems. The investigation of generator speed, rotor angle, and electric power during transient stability analysis provides a holistic view of how a power system responds to disturbances. This information is crucial for ensuring the reliability and stability of the system, especially when studying the integration of renewable energy sources and addressing potential challenges associated with faults and weak buses. This paper presents a pioneering non-iterative framework for dynamically assessing wind energy dominated multi-machine power systems. The proposed framework aims to address the shortcomings of traditional iterative methods, providing a more efficient and reliable approach to power system analysis.

The Intraday Impacts of Wind Energy on Wholesale Electricity Prices and Carbon Emissions in Great Britain

The Intraday Impacts of Wind Energy on Wholesale Electricity Prices and Carbon Emissions in Great Britain

The Intraday Impacts of Wind Energy on Wholesale Electricity Prices and Carbon Emissions in Great Britain

The Intraday Impacts of Wind Energy on Wholesale Electricity Prices and Carbon Emissions in Great Britain

The impact of wind energy on plant biomass production in China

Global wind power expansion raises concerns about its potential impact on plant biomass production (PBP). Using a high-dimensional fixed effects model, this study reveals significant PBP reduction due to wind farm construction based on 2404 wind farms, 108,361 wind turbines, and 7,904,352 PBP observations during 2000–2022 in China. Within a 1–10 km buffer, the normalized differential vegetation and enhanced vegetation indices decrease from 0.0097 to 0.0045 and 0.0075 to 0.0028, respectively. Similarly, absorbed photosynthetically active radiation and gross primary productivity decline from 0.0094 to 0.0034% and 0.0003–0.0002 g*C/m2 within a 1–7 km buffer. Adverse effects last over three years, magnified in summer and autumn, and are more pronounced at lower altitudes and in plains. Forest carbon sinks decrease by 12,034 tons within a 0–20 km radius, causing an average economic loss of $1.81 million per wind farm. Our findings underscore the balanced mitigation strategies for renewable energy transition when transiting from fossil fuels.

The Impact of Wind Energy on Air Pollution and Emergency Department Visits

The Impact of Wind Energy on Air Pollution and Emergency Department Visits

Calculation and optimization of inter-regional available transfer capability considering wind power uncertainty and system improvement measures

The intermittency and uncertainty of wind energy make transmission congestion management increasingly complex. In this paper, we investigate the impact of wind energy on available transmission capacity (ATC) and then explore ways to mitigate transmission congestion from the grid and load side, respectively. The impact of a stochastic variable is considered by applying Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) and backward curtailment techniques to generate typical scenarios. ATC is improved by the optimal allocation of Thyristor Controlled Series Compensation (TCSC) on the grid side and the use of Demand Response (DR) on the load side. The source-grid-load cooperative optimisation model for ATC is solved by an improved particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm. Based on the IEEE-30 bus system, an experimental scheme is designed and analytical calculations are performed. The results show that the joint application of TCSC and DR can help to improve ATC in a comprehensive way. The work done in this paper can achieve the purpose of promoting renewable energy consumption by improving the utilisation efficiency of the transmission network without changing the network structure.

Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Alternative Energy Sources in China

The transition to renewable energy sources is crucial for mitigating the impacts of climate change and achieving sustainable development goals. In China, the rapid industrialization and urbanization have led to an increasing demand for energy, highlighting the urgent need to transition to alternative energy sources. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of alternative energy sources in China, considering multiple criteria such as cost, environmental impact, energy output, reliability, and scalability. We employed a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) approach to compare and rank different energy sources based on these criteria. Our findings indicate that wind energy is the most effective alternative energy source overall due to its relatively low cost, high efficiency, moderate environmental impact, good scalability, and high reliability. However, geothermal energy had the lowest levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), while hydro energy performed well in terms of efficiency and reliability. The environmental impact of wind energy was found to be moderate but still less severe compared to other energy sources. Our study provides important insights into the trade-offs and considerations that policymakers and industry leaders must make when selecting which energy sources to prioritize. The findings highlight the need for a comprehensive and integrated approach to energy policy that balances economic, environmental, and social considerations. In conclusion, this study contributes to the literature by emphasizing the importance of considering multiple criteria when evaluating alternative energy sources. Our findings can inform policy decisions regarding the development of a sustainable and reliable energy mix in China, and have important implications for other countries seeking to transition to renewable energy sources.

Impacts of Wind Energy on Family and Local Economies in the ISTMO of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca

The implementation of wind farms in the Istmo of Tehuantepec is a clear example of the use of the green economy as a strategy for capitalist accumulation, based on the use of the discourse of environmental mitigation to ensure the accumulation of large volumes of capital, for the benefit of national and transnational corporations. All this at the cost of the territorial rights of peasant societies, the dispossession of their resources and the destruction of their cultural landscape. Wind energy has become a symbol of the type of "sustainable" development sought by the new local, state and federal administrations. They promote social and environmental impact studies that consolidate wind projects as the option for the energy transition, where the only difficulty is the lack of adequate negotiation spaces regarding land rent. The wind potential in the Istmo of Tehuantepec is imperative, as it favors the development companies, limiting the benefits for local communities and increasing social rejection to the projects.

Time-Frequency Spillovers and the Determinants among Fossil Energy, Clean Energy and Metal Markets

Using the frequency-domain spillover index method, we investigate time-frequency spillovers and their underlying drivers among fossil energy, clean energy and metal markets. We find that short-term spillovers are stronger than long-term spillovers. Global clean energy markets are powerful spillover transmitters that can have strong impacts on fossil energy and metal markets. Rare earth metals are most vulnerable to spillover effects from clean energy and base metal markets, particularly in the long term. Different clean energy sources and metal markets have heterogeneous connectedness, e.g., the impact of wind energy on rare earth market is greater than that of solar energy. The short-term spillovers are mainly driven by policy changes, while the long-term spillovers are mainly affected by stock market uncertainty and economic fundamentals. Our findings have important implications for the construction of optimal diversification strategies and the design of policy incentives to promote clean energy investments across different time horizons.

Side Effects of Wind Energy: Review of Three Topics—Status and Open Questions

Wind energy is considered a pillar of the low-carbon energy system of the future. Whereas the side effects and social costs of fossil energy sources (coal, oil and gas), as well as those of nuclear energy, are well-documented and quantified, understanding of the analogous questions with respect to wind energy is far less advanced. However, such understanding is crucial in order to minimize the influence of wind energy on the environment and to compare its social costs with those of conventional energy sources. Here, we summarize the state of knowledge of three side effects of wind energy that have not been convincingly evaluated to date. We focus our analysis on three topics, namely (1) the impact of wind energy on insects; (2) the impact of wind energy on the spatiotemporal distribution of air velocity, temperature, moisture and precipitation in the vicinity of wind parks; and (3) the impact of wind energy on humans through noise emission. For each topic, we formulate open research questions that should be addressed by responsible policy incentives in order to comprehensively assess the social costs of wind energy and to develop wind farms with minimal impact on their environment.

Positive Impact of Wind Energy on Environment - A Review

This is the era of urbanization and industrialization. Since the beginning of industrialization and urbanization the energy demand has increased because energy consumption has also increased and it is increasing every day. For electrical energy generation world is still more dependent on fossil fuels. In the process of electricity generation, fossil fuels are burned, they release large amount of harmful pollutants in atmosphere which disturbs ecosystem and habitat on earth. Hence renewable energy expected to play vital role in preventing environmental pollution. In this paper, the impact of using wind energy source for electricity generation has been analyzed.

Life Cycle Environmental Impact of Wind Turbines: What are the Possible Improvement Pathways?

This study explores the effect of different technology choices on the life cycle Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions of wind turbines. It aims at identifying possible improvement pathways and quantifying potential benefits. First, an automated Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) model is developed and validated against other studies. The breakdown of the resulting Impact Of Energy (IOE) by life stages, components and materials is presented for a selected reference turbine. Sensitivity analyses are conducted on the different hypotheses to model the turbine life cycle. The model is then applied to analyze the potential effect of turbine size, foundation type, tower type, drivetrain technology, carbon-fiber blades and thermoplastic polymer resin for the blades. The tower type (especially wooden tower) and the thermoplastics (allowing to recover materials at the end-of-life) are identified to have the biggest potential to reduce the life cycle environmental impact of wind energy.

Wind Energy Development in the Context of Sustainable Development Goals

The paper analyses the current peculiarities of wind energy development in Russia. The importance of renewable energy sources for solving the problems of limited resources and environmental safety is defined. Some economic aspects of wind energy are given and the conclusion about insufficient efficiency and investment attractiveness of this energy generation sector is made. The positive impact of wind energy in the context of implementation of sustainable development goals is considered. The importance of territorial technological clusters for overcoming barriers to wind energy development, among which financial and regulatory factors dominate, is revealed. An example of objectives and planned results of wind energy development in Volgodonsk, Rostov region is given.

Renewable energy taxes and environmental impacts: A critical reflection from the wind tax in Spain

In recent decades, wind energy has undergone significant progress, with the contribution of countries such as China, the United States, Germany and Spain standing out, although there is no single comprehensive model for promoting renewable energy worldwide. In Spain, the regions of Galicia, Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia have led this process, with significant changes in their contribution depending on the economic situation and the varied legislative framework in force at any given time. Although wind energy is less harmful to the environment, it is not harmless, and environmental impact and its penalisation is one of the key elements in the applicable regulations. In the case of Spain, the three regions mentioned above, out of a total of seventeen, apply their own taxes to tax the environmental impact of wind energy. The aim of this paper is to describe and compare the wind tax applied in the aforementioned regions from 1995 to 2020; to characterise wind taxation socio-economically, and to assess the suitability of this type of taxation to tax the environmental impacts associated with wind energy activity in Spain. The differences in tax treatment are notable and it is observed that the concept of environmental impact has been anchored in the past and, today, older wind farms with less powerful wind turbines are those that bear a greater tax burden, while more modern, more powerful and larger wind farms (with a significant environmental, acoustic and visual impact) may even be exempt from taxation.

Comparison of the Home Ranges of Mountain Hawk-Eagles during Different Phases of Wind Farm Construction

Raptors are long-lived apex predators with a lower rate of breeding success than smaller birds. Therefore, their responses to the construction of wind farms must be documented to assess the impact of wind energy on birds. We estimated the home ranges of three pairs of Mountain Hawk-Eagle Nisaetus nipalensis orientalis before, during, and after construction of a wind energy facility to assess changes in home range. We also compared altitude, inclination, and land cover composition of habitats within home ranges during the construction phase. For one pair, the home range of which included wind farm construction, the distance from the home range to the construction area during the first year of construction increased significantly compared with that during pre-construction, but there was no significant difference between the post-construction and construction phase. It is thought that the construction of a wind farm within the home range caused the displacement, and that displacement began during the first phase of construction and continuing during the second phase and afterwards. Because the birds moved about 500 m away from the wind farm during the construction and post-construction phases but succeeded in breeding, we think that the distance of 500 m may be meaningful in terms of mitigating disturbance. The nest trees of all three successful breeding pairs were more than 1.3 km from the closest wind turbine, perhaps indicative that impact on breeding is light if construction takes place this far away from breeding sites. No significant differences in either land cover or inclination within home ranges were found during the construction phase, which might explain why all birds bred successfully during the second construction phase. After construction, all three pairs continued to use areas with similar habitat.

IMPACT OF RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES CONSUMPTION ON ECONOMIC GROWTH IN EUROPE AND ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

Renewable energy sources have a significant impact on transforming the world fuel and energy balance structure, exacerbating inter-fuel competition. The development of green energy and a low-carbon economy is a priority task of modern energy and foreign economic policy in many countries. However, the consumption of renewable energy is uneven. This is due to the high cost of technologies and equipment and certain «distrust» in alternative fuels and their capabilities. In a framework of this study, the authors evaluated the impact of renewable energy sources on the economic development of Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, which are the primary consumers of these types of energy. The article investigates the dependence of GDP growth on the growth in consumption of fossil and renewable energy sources both in aggregate form and individual types of energy. The detailed calculations made it possible to identify the degree of influence of renewable energy on the economy in several macro-regions and determine the most significant types of energy resources. This statistically confirmed the positive impact of wind energy in Europe and solar energy in the Asia-Pacific region. The obtained regression estimates confirm the positive influence and stimulating effect of renewable energy on Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. The results obtained by the authors are based on data for the period from 1990 to 2017.Keywords: renewable energy sources, fossil fuel, hydrocarbons, economic growth, Europe, Asia-Pacific region, panel data analysis.JEL Classifications: C23, C33, Q2, Q21, Q43.DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.11787

A multi-factor approach to modelling the impact of wind energy on electricity spot prices

We introduce a four-factor arithmetic model for electricity baseload spot prices in Germany and Austria. The model consists of a deterministic seasonality and trend function, both short- and long-term stochastic components, and exogenous factors such as the daily wind energy production forecasts, the residual demand and the wind penetration index. We describe the short-term stochastic factor by a Lévy semi-stationary (LSS) process, and the long-term component is modelled as a Lévy process with increments belonging to the class of generalised hyperbolic distributions.We derive the corresponding futures prices and develop an inference methodology for our multi-factor model. The methodology allows to infer the various factors in a step-wise procedure taking empirical spot prices, futures prices and wind energy production and total load data into account.Our empirical work shows that taking into account the impact of the wind energy generation on the prices improves the goodness of fit. Moreover, we demonstrate that the class of LSS processes can be used for modelling the exogenous variables including wind energy production, residual demand and the wind penetration index.

Assessing the vulnerability of breeding bird populations to onshore wind-energy developments in Finland

Wind-energy expansion raises concerns over its potential impacts on bird populations. Birds may be affected directly via collision with turbines or indirectly via habitat loss or displacement due to disturbance. Species with long generation times, low reproductive output or high habitat specialisation are more likely to be impacted. Using national-scale breeding bird distributions, we applied a quantitative prioritisation method to assess the vulnerability of species to onshore wind-energy developments in Finland. We assessed 214 species that regularly breed in the country. Each species was assigned a priority score based on a combination of life-history traits, habitat specialisation, exposure to wind energy and conservation status. We found that the priority scores varied markedly between species, allowing a distinction between a minority of high-ranked species and a majority of low-ranked species. High-ranked species included terns (e.g., Sternula albifrons), raptors (e.g., Aquila chrysaetos), gulls (e.g., Larus fuscus), some forestdwelling passerines (e.g., Poecile montanus) and ducks (e.g., Aythya ferina). Lowranked species included woodpeckers (e.g., Picus canus) and many passerines. Our results indicate that the priority species are not limited to the more highly regarded large raptors, and that wind-energy impact assessments need to pay special attention to highranked species inhabiting coastal areas.

Local-scale impact of wind energy farms on rare, endemic, and threatened plant species

BackgroundWind energy farms have become a popular solution to produce green energy worldwide. Their development within protected areas has increased dramatically in the past decade, and the effects on the rare, endemic and threatened plant species (i.e., protected plant species), essential for habitat conservation and management, are little known. Only a few studies directly quantify the impacts of wind energy farms on them. Our study analyzes the impact of wind energy farms on rare, endemic, and threatened plant species in steppic habitats and their recovery potential over a ten-year period on a wind energy farm within the Dealurile Agighiolului Natura 2000 site (Dobrogea Region, SE Romania).MethodsWe surveyed the rare, endemic, and threatened plant species within a radius of approximately 50 m around each of the 17 wind towers during the wind farm operational phase. We selected 34 plots to allow the investigation of two types of areas: (1) a disturbed area overlapping the technological platform, where the vegetation was removed before construction, and (2) an adjacent undisturbed area. To understand the effects of the wind energy farm on the rare, endemic, and threatened plant species diversity and the differences between the disturbed and undisturbed areas, we calculated under both conditions: (1) plant species richness; (2) sample-size-based rarefaction and extrapolation with Hill numbers parameterized by species richness; (3) non-metric multidimensional scaling of Jaccard dissimilarity index; (4) functional diversity; (5) beta-diversity (including replacement and nestedness of species).ResultsAs a result of the disturbances caused by the wind energy farm’s development, we identified a sharp contrast between the diversity of rare, endemic, and threatened plants inhabiting disturbed and undisturbed areas near the wind towers. Our research showed that less than 40% of the total inventoried rare, endemic, and threatened species colonized the disturbed sites. Species turnover within undisturbed plots was higher than disturbed plots, implying that the plant community’s heterogeneity was high. However, a higher richness in rare, endemic, and threatened plant species was found in the plots around the wind towers in grasslands of primary type. Sample-size-based rarefaction and extrapolation with Hill numbers by observed species richness indicated an accurate estimation of species richness in disturbed habitats, demonstrating that recovery after wind energy farm construction was incomplete after ten years of low-intensity plant restoration and conservation activities. Thus, we consider that operating activities must be reconfigured to allow the complete recovery of the communities with rare, endemic, and threatened plant species.