Social_and_Environmental

1. Introduction
2. Environmental Impact
3. Conflicts of Interest
4. Social Acceptance
5. National Policies
6. Ongoing Research Projects
7. General Conclusions
8. Selected References
9. Appendix

Social Acceptance, Environmental Impact
 and Politics

 

Table of contents

 

1       Introduction. 3

2       Environmental Impact. 4

2.1       Environmental Impact Assessment 4

2.2       Biological impacts. 5

2.2.1        Birds 6

2.2.2        Sea mammals 11

2.2.3        Fish . 12

2.2.4        Seabed and benthos 13

2.2.5        Hydrography, sea currents and water quality. 14

2.3       Effects from accidents 14

2.4       Visual effect. 16

2.5       Noise and vibration effects 20

2.5.1        Airborne noise . 20

2.5.2        Underwater noise and vibrations 20

3       Conflicts of Interest 23

3.1       Traffic . 23

3.1.1        Ships 23

3.1.2        Air traffic . 24

3.1.3        Painting and illumination/marking lights 24

3.2       Defence . 25

3.2.1        Radar and radio signals 25

3.3       Fish . 26

3.4       Birds 27

3.5       Other conflicts of interest 27

3.5.1        Raw material deposits 27

3.5.2        Marine archaeology . 27

3.6       Conflicts of interest - general conclusions 28

4       Social Acceptance. 29

5       National Policies. 32

5.1       General attitude. 32

5.2       Planning rules. 32

5.3       Incentives. 37

5.4       Conclusions 42

6       Ongoing Research Projects 43

7       General Conclusions 44

7.1       Identification of problem areas 44

7.2       Recommendations for RTD programmes 46

7.3       General recommendations for offshore wind projects 48

8       Selected References 49

9       General References 51

1  Introduction

 

The objective of task 2.5 has been to bring together existing knowledge concerning offshore wind farms in relation to the following subjects:

·  environmental impacts

·  conflicts of interest

·   social acceptance

·  policies

 

This draft report has been prepared based on answers to questionnaires received from 13 European Countries, evaluating the different topics, as seen from within each of these countries. The answers given to the individual questionnaires can be found in Annex 1, arranged in order of subjects.

 

Where appropriate, each member of the concerted action has indicated the importance of specific subjects by giving them numbers from 1-3, “1” indicating high importance and “3” low importance.

 

On basis of this ranking and the responses from the members of the Concerted Action, and on the basis of interviews with key players within offshore wind energy, selected references have been reviewed in order to achieve the most up-to-date knowledge of the relevant issues of this cluster.

 

The focus, in particular for the section on environmental impact, has been to point to issues, which may become potential barriers for the large-scale development of offshore wind industry. Therefore the well-known environmental beneficial effects of wind turbine produced power are not specifically mentioned here (but in the report from Cluster 2.4). It must however be noted that these benefits, the avoidance of pollutant gasses and the preservations of raw materials like gas and coal, should be clearly stated in the Environmental Impact Assessment and that the emphasizing of these positive environmental impacts is crucial in relation to the public and political acceptance of wind energy. A study on the positive impacts may be necessary as these may differ in detail from the onshore situation, e.g. different pollutant levels per kWh; job creation rate per kW different.  Some work exists on this but may need final definition (see Draft Report on WP 2.4.).

 

 

 

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