Siting Renewable Energy Research Articles

The potential of offshore windfarms to act as marine protected areas – A systematic review of current evidence

As offshore windfarm (OWF) construction in the UK is progressing rapidly, monitoring of the economic and ecological effects of these developments is urgently needed. This is to enable both spatial planning and where necessary mitigation in an increasingly crowded marine environment. One approach to mitigation is co-location of OWFs and marine protected areas (MPAs). This systematic review has the objective to inform this co-location proposal and identify areas requiring further research. A limited number of studies addressing marine renewable energy structures and related artificial structures in coastal waters were found. The results of these studies display a change in species assemblages at artificial structures in comparison to naturally occurring habitats. An increase in hard substrata associated species, especially benthic bivalves, crustaceans and reef associated fish and a decrease in algae abundance were the dominant trends. Assemblages associated with complex concrete structures revealed greater similarity to natural hard substrata compared to those around steel structures. To consider marine renewable energy sites, especially large scale OWFs as MPAs, the dissimilar nature of assemblages on the structures themselves to natural communities should be considered. However positive effects were recorded on the abundance of commercially important crustacean species. This suggests potential for incorporation of OWFs as no fishing, or restricted activity zones within a wider MPA to aid fisheries augmentation. The limited available evidence highlights a requirement for significant further research involving long term monitoring at a variety of sites to better inform management options.

Sustainability assessment of nearly zero energy renovation of dwellings based on energy, economy and home quality indicators

A case study of a Norwegian detached house is used to evaluate the sustainability of two nearly zero energy renovation strategies. Energy demand, life cycle cost and home qualities are assessed as sustainability indicators. The Façade renovation strategy is an energy upgrade of the façade supplemented with high renewable energy production on site. The Ambitious renovation strategy is a total building envelope upgrade using passive house components and a lower on site renewable energy production. Both renovation strategies result in a 50–85% reduction of the heating requirement depending on the renewable energy production. The sustainability assessment was done as an iterative process including qualitative and quantitative parameters. The Ambitious renovation strategy is more costly than the Façade alternative over a 30 year period. However, homeowners do not base their decisions to renovate strictly on cost evaluations and homeowner categories influence the assessment. The Façade strategy is suitable for homeowners that do the retrofit themselves and homeowners prioritizing to keep the existing architectural qualities of their house. The Ambitious strategy is more suitable for the homeowners seeking to change the aesthetics of their home as well as for the homeowners emphasizing the overall technical performance after renovation.

Epibenthic Assessment of a Renewable Tidal Energy Site

Concern over global climate change as a result of fossil fuel use has resulted in energy production from renewable sources. Marine renewable energy devices provide clean electricity but can also cause physical disturbance to the local environment. There is a considerable paucity of ecological data at potential marine renewable energy sites that is needed to assess potential future impacts and allow optimal siting of devices. Here, we provide a baseline benthic survey for the Big Russel in Guernsey, UK, a potential site for tidal energy development. To assess the suitability of proposed sites for marine renewable energy in the Big Russel and to identify potential control sites, we compared species assemblages and habitat types. This baseline survey can be used to select control habitats to compare and monitor the benthic communities after installation of the device and contribute towards the optimal siting of any future installation.

Challenges for local community development in private sector-led renewable energy projects in South Africa: an evolving approach

The Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme in South Africa is intended to support the uptake of renewable energy, help address the current energy supply crisis and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Notably, it also requires project developers to engage with socio-economic development at the local level. The distributed nature of renewable energy generation may induce a more geographically dispersed pattern of development, and renewable energy sites can be highly suited to rural locations with otherwise poor potential to attract local inward investment. Socio-economic development and enterprise development are two of seven economic development elements in the programme.In order to prepare a bid submission, project developers have to assess local socio-economic needs around their project site and develop strategies on how to address these. This paper investigates the challenges for local community development. The research is based on case studies and presents findings from the perspective of a research team working alongside project developers. Early findings indicate that there are potential community benefits from commercial wind projects, providing an appropriate community engagement process that is aligned with the project cycle determined by the tender process and engineering requirements. The Passive Community Needs Assessment approach is introduced as a possible solution.

Energy Conversion Processes Research of Inverter – Three Phase Dual System Converter

Current sources are used at modern technologies widely. These technologies are solid state laser storage, electro thermal metal welding, gas discharge lamps lighting and irradiation equipment. Application of current source system creates unique possibilities to use low potential, stochastic character electrical energy of renewable energy resources site more effectively. Research results and practical application possibilities of electrical energy conversion processes of inverter – three phase dual system converter are presented at paper. Such three phase inverter – system converter could be applied effectively at renewable energy site. Ill. 10, bibl. 9 (in English; abstracts in English and Lithuanian).DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eee.120.4.1443

Renovation of an UNESCO Heritage Settlement in Southern Italy: ASHP and BIPV for a “Spread Hotel” Project

Many small historical settlements in Mediterranean areas have a great value in terms of architectural and cultural heritage. Therefore it happens that the socio–economic situation of many of these settlements is backward and depressed. A succesful way to develop these important environments is to implement tourism, a profitable and available economical resource. “Spread Hotel” or “Diffuse Hotel” or “Albergo Diffuso” is an innovative concept which aims to renovate decayed buildings situated in historical locations. New economical inputs are needed to revitalize these settlements and their social tissue. “Diffuse Hotel” concept is very diffused in Italy due to its rich historical heritage. The present paper displays a renovation project of a rural historical settlement into a “Spread Hotel”. The site under analysis is located in Palazzolo Acreide, Sicily, Italy. The settlement strongly needed to be refurbished in order to provide habitability and to guarantee a proper level of comfort according to italian standards. The area is also listed in the UNESCO Heritage. The “Diffuse Hotel” at a national level is considered as an affordable and comfortable concept that enables the travellers to experiance Italy through a tipical, historical and comfortable hotel. The historical built enviroment preservation is strategic in Italy and can strongly support economical revitalization. European Community supports the development of “Spread Hotels” projects in order to improve economical capacity of depressed areas by financing refurbishment programs. In this contest the authors present how “Palazzolo Acreide” renovation project was done. In particular, the design strategy was to respect the local characteristics, improve thermal performance and HVAC systems and exploting the on site renewable energy. In fact, in the Mediterranean areas solar radiation is a incredible resource to provide energy to the buildings.

Spatial variation of emissions impacts due to renewable energy siting decisions in the Western U.S. under high-renewable penetration scenarios

One of the policy goals motivating programs to increase renewable energy investment is that renewable electric generation will help reduce emissions of CO 2 as well as emissions of conventional pollutants (e.g., SO 2 and NO x ). As a policy instrument, Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) encourage investments in wind, solar and other generation sources with the goal of reducing air emissions from electricity production. Increased electricity production from wind turbines is expected to displace electricity production from fossil-fired plants, thus reducing overall system emissions. We analyze the emissions impacts of incremental investments in utility-scale wind power, on the order of 1 GW beyond RPS goals, in the Western United States using a utility-scale generation dispatch model that incorporates the impacts of transmission constraints. We find that wind investment in some locations leads to slight increases in overall emissions of CO 2, SO 2 and NO x . The location of wind farms influences the environmental impact by changing the utilization of transmission assets, which affects the overall utilization of power generation sources and thus system-level emissions. Our results suggest that renewable energy policy beyond RPS targets should be carefully crafted to ensure consistency with environmental goals.

Characterizing and monitoring marine nekton at Puget Sound’s renewable energy site.

Marine hydrokinetic energy sites have the potential to impact distributions, dynamics, and abundances of macroinvertebrates, fish, and marine mammals (i.e., nekton). Potential impacts include changes in aggregation, avoidance, and occurrences of strikes or impingements. Understanding potential impacts requires knowledge of species‐specific distributions over relevant spatial and temporal scales. Configurations and integration of technologies capable of providing images and data are not well‐established, and the application of monitoring technologies is complicated by extreme flows at marine hydrokinetic energy sites. An echosounder, multibeam sonar, and acoustic camera will be used to detect, categorize, and enumerate nekton at a proposed renewable energy site in northern Admiralty Inlet, Puget Sound, WA. This is the site selected by Snohomish Public Utility District for the deployment of two OpenHydro turbines. Data from stationary instrument deployments will be compared to data from a mobile acoustic and midwater trawling survey to determine how well each technology captures spatiotemporal variation in nekon density distributions. Results of the design, deployment, retrieval, and analysis of data from these three instrument classes will be used to formulate recommendations for instrument choice, configuration, and the characterization and monitoring of pelagic nekton at any renewable energy site.

Acoustic challenges in aquatic ecosystem assessment.

In an effort to increase communication and collaboration between members of the Acoustical Society of America and the American Fisheries Society, a joint workshop focusing on the integration of biological and physical elements in ecosystem research, current policy and regulations, and applications of acoustic technologies developed field use will be held Thursday and Friday during the conference. Topics of interest in the workshop include the following: ecosystem based resource management, cabled observatories, monitoring renewable energy sites, acoustic species discrimination, statistical analysis for fisheries assessment, progress in fish tagging, acoustical models for fisheries assessment habitat inventory, detecting, and monitoring episodic events: natural and anthropogenic, active and passive assessment, and quantitative assessments in noisy environments. Ocean observatories is an explicit topic of interest in the workshop, but it can serve as an integrating theme that potentially expands the scope and capabilities of aquatic ecosystem assessment.

A Quantitative, Non-Destructive Methodology for Habitat Characterisation and Benthic Monitoring at Offshore Renewable Energy Developments

Following governments' policies to tackle global climate change, the development of offshore renewable energy sites is likely to increase substantially over coming years. All such developments interact with the seabed to some degree and so a key need exists for suitable methodology to monitor the impacts of large-scale Marine Renewable Energy Installations (MREIs). Many of these will be situated on mixed or rocky substrata, where conventional methods to characterise the habitat are unsuitable. Traditional destructive sampling is also inappropriate in conservation terms, particularly as safety zones around (MREIs) could function as Marine Protected Areas, with positive benefits for biodiversity. Here we describe a technique developed to effectively monitor the impact of MREIs and report the results of its field testing, enabling large areas to be surveyed accurately and cost-effectively. The methodology is based on a high-definition video camera, plus LED lights and laser scale markers, mounted on a “flying array” that maintains itself above the seabed grounded by a length of chain, thus causing minimal damage. Samples are taken by slow-speed tows of the gear behind a boat (200 m transects). The HD video and randomly selected frame grabs are analysed to quantify species distribution. The equipment was tested over two years in Lyme Bay, UK (25 m depth), then subsequently successfully deployed in demanding conditions at the deep (>50 m) high-energy Wave Hub site off Cornwall, UK, and a potential tidal stream energy site in Guernsey, Channel Islands (1.5 ms−1 current), the first time remote samples from such a habitat have been achieved. The next stage in the monitoring development process is described, involving the use of Remote Operated Vehicles to survey the seabed post-deployment of MREI devices. The complete methodology provides the first quantitative, relatively non-destructive method for monitoring mixed-substrate benthic communities beneath MPAs and MREIs pre- and post-device deployment.

Siting Renewable Energy: Land Use and Regulatory Context

This article takes up the increasingly important land use question of siting for renewable energy. As concern over climate change grows, new policies are being crafted at all levels of government to support renewable energy as a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These policies are driving the need to site and construct new power plants that will utilize renewable resources. Historically, power plant siting has been the province of state and local governments, so the regulatory context into which renewables are being integrated varies, sometimes significantly, jurisdiction by jurisdiction. To examine this regulatory context, this article focuses on Florida – the third largest consumer of electricity in the U.S. with less than two percent generated from renewable resources. The article first provides an overview of Florida’s power supply sector and sets out the existing regulatory context for terrestrial siting of energy facilities. It then situates Florida’s most promising renewable resources within that context, identifies regulatory barriers that implicate siting, and considers the siting issues unique to each resource. As the article explains, we now have a window of opportunity in which state and local governments can plan for and guide renewable energy siting – an approach that contrasts with utility-driven planning and siting that has long been standard practice.

Siting Renewable Energy: Land Use and Regulatory Context

This Article takes up the increasingly important land use question of siting for renewable energy. As concern over climate change grows, new policies are being crafted at all levels of government to support renewable energy as a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These policies are driving the need to site and construct new power plants that will utilize renewable resources. Historically, power plant siting has been the province of state and local governments, so the regulatory context into which renewables are being integrated varies, sometimes significantly, jurisdiction by jurisdiction. To examine this regulatory context, this Article focuses on Florida, a state which consumes the third-most electricity in the United States but which generates less than 2 percent of that electricity from renewable resources. The Article first provides an overview of Florida’s power supply sector and sets out the existing regulatory context for terrestrial siting of energy facilities. It then situates Florida’s most promising renewable resources within that context, identifies regulatory barriers that implicate siting, and considers the siting issues unique to each resource. As the article explains, we now have a window of opportunity in which state and local governments can plan for and guide renewable energy siting—an approach that contrasts with utility-driven planning and siting that has long been standard practice.

Converged Optical Network Infrastructures in Support of Future Internet and Grid Services Using IaaS to Reduce GHG Emissions

With the rapid and growing volume of green house gas (GHG) we may soon cross a tipping point where there may be dramatic climatic catastrophes such that governments will be forced to order the shutdown of coal powered electrical production or mandate carbon neutrality across all sectors of society. On the other hand, in the event of such a development, the future Internet and Grid infrastructure may become absolutely essential for communications and a replacement for travel and for the delivery of critical services such as health, education, research, etc. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) produce 2%-3% of the world's GHG emissions through the consumption of electricity largely produced by coal plants. This rate of GHG is expected to double in the next few years and is clearly unsustainable. Therefore it is critical that any future Internet and Grid infrastructure be designed not only to survive, but also be sustained, through an age where no additional GHG emissions will be allowed. Converged optical networks, Grid and cloud services hosted at zero carbon renewable energy sites using Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) where each network and computer element is represented to a user as a configurable virtual service will allow for the deployment of what are often referred to as ldquofollow the sun or follow the windrdquo optical network and Grid architectures where the network and Grid topology and Grid resources availability and location are constantly changing depending on local availability states of the wind or sun.

NIMBY or not? Exploring the relevance of location and the politics of voiced opinions in renewable energy siting controversies

Local protests against renewable energy facilities have added fuel to the debate about the so-called NIMBY (not in my back yard) effect. This paper identifies six ‘variables’ that can hamper the comparison between different public perception studies, and offers two broad conclusions. On aggregate, proximity does have strong influence on public attitudes to proposed projects, but the nature, strength and spatial scale of this effect may vary according to local context and ‘value’ of the land. Residents of stigmatised places are more likely to welcome facilities that are relatively ‘green’, while people who derive a more positive sense of identity from particular rural landscapes are likely to resist such potential developments, especially if they also live there. Secondly, the fear of being branded a NIMBY, and the positive ethics associated with the notion of renewable are both likely to ‘colour’ the responses of many interviewees. These aspects need to be clarified and accounted for in analyses of elicited responses, both quantitative and qualitative, if we are to improve our understanding of the social construction of individual attitudes in siting conflicts.

Facts, values, and technical expertise in a renewable energy siting dispute

During the last decade the environmental problem and the social movement it inspired served to define technology as a social problem. Controversies have persistently surrounded the siting of large-scale energy production facilities, in particular nuclear and coal-fired power plants. This paper sheds additional light on public response to the scale of energy development by focusing on a dispute that involved a renewable energy technology — a 25 MW wood-fired electric power plant (WFPP) to have been sited in the remote nonmetropolitan community of Hersey, Michigan. Following a summary of the two year (1978–1980) controversy, facts/values are analyzed relative to the social and political impact of technical expertise. The method entailed a content analysis of the site hearing and accounts in the county weekly newspaper. Findings include a shift toward value issues when experts disagree. Implications are discussed for consumer behavior and energy policy in connection with the scale of renewable energy development, the concomitant distribution of social costs, and the use of expertise to depoliticize issues.

Facts, values, and technical expertise in a renewable energy siting dispute

Facts, values, and technical expertise in a renewable energy siting dispute