Environmental impact

and
Social Considerations
of
Wind Power

1
 Introduction
• Global climate change is a consequence of the human activity and
results mainly from fossil fuel combustion
• The increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in Earths
atmosphere and all the grave consequences related to their effect
(“global warming”) causes deep concern in the scientific community
and in the public opinion;
• There is an urgent need to mitigate the negative effects of the fossil
fuels use and the clean, renewable energies, including that
provided by the wind, are regarded as a viable answer to this
serious problem;
• Based on a long tradition, wind energy was “rediscovered” and is
currently in a spectacular development worldwide.
• Today, wind energy is rated as one of the fastest growing
technologies in the world
• A growing number of countries are developing now commercial
wind power projects

2
 Introduction
Motivations for Wind Power Development
 Is clean, free and indigenous;
 Combats climate change;
 Reduces air pollution;
 Provides energy security;
 Diversifies energy supply;
 Eliminates imported fuels;
 Prevents conflict over natural ressources;
 Improves rural electrification and reduces poverty;
 Creates jobs, regional growth and innovation;
 Hedges prices volatility of fossil fuels;
 Delivers power on large scale;
 Is modular and quick to install

3
 Environmental Aspects
The environmental impact can be regarded in relation to:
 Human environment
 gas emission,
 noise,
 radio and TV interference,
 visual effect,
 land use.

 Natural environment
 climate change,
 animal habitat,
 soil and vegetation.

 Environmental effect of turbine operation

 turbine wake effects,
 icing effect in cold climates.

4
 Human Environment

Gas Emissions
• The non-renewable energy sources, like coal, oil and natural
gas are the main factors that contribute to the pollution and to
the degradation of the air quality
climate change (CO2, N2O, methane),
air toxics (mercury, heavy metal emissions),
acid rain
Smog

• This has a major impact on human health and on the

ecosystem;

• Prevention methods and emissions reduction are fundamental

for the world and to invest in their prevention will represent the
investments which contribute to a cleaner world

5
 Human Environment
 Noise Impact
• The aerodynamic noise (the most important in the case
of a wind turbine) is generated by the fluctuating
aerodynamic lift on the turbine blades;
• The unsteady loading is responsible for most of the
objectionable aero-acoustic noise;
• For example, the Eole turbine operation increased the
background noise levels by about 8 dBA in its vicinity,
but this increase was fully attenuated, hence fully
negligible, beyond a 300 m radius from the it;
• The noise of the wind turbine can be reduced by
lowering the rotor speed at values that, even if not
optimal for the power output, are less “noisy”

6
 Human Environment
Noise Impact

Frequency spectrum of the sound pressure level measured 200 m (downwind) from a large scale HAWT

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Human Environment
 Electromagnetic
Interference
• Wind turbines appear to
produce television
interference
 Interferences for a
Darrieus turbine on low
VHF channels is of the
same order as that for a
HAWT
 The Darrieus turbine
appears to produce less
interference than a
HAWT on all other
channels
• The rapid growth of cable
TV installations and satellite
dishes may obviate further
research in this area.

8
 Human Environment
Visual Impact
• The main factors in the visual impact include landscape,
turbine disposition, their size and number and the design type
• The blades can be painted in order to eliminate “blade
flashing” resulting from light reflection and to better blend the
turbines into the background colours of the surrounding
terrain

Land Use Impact

On wind farms and other installations
land disturbance to build the foundations,
roadways,
power transmission lines and transformers,
domestic animal behaviour.

9
 Human Environment
 Land Use Impact

Specific land-use requirements of power generation plants

10
 Natural Environment
Animal Habitat
• Animal habitat in a wind farm is disturbed by
the installation requirements of the wind turbines,
transmission lines, transformers and substations,
roads,
emissions (such as oil leakage),
construction debris and cleared areas,
fences and human activity,
• This type of impact is very similar with HAWT and VAWT;
• Turbine structures and power transmission lines have quite
negligible influence on birds of prey and migratory patterns.
• Land disturbance and human activity reduce the habitat and
availability of prey.

11
 Natural Environment
Animal Habitat

12
 Natural Environment
Soil and Vegetation
• Impact on soil and vegetation depends mainly on the way
in which the turbines are distributed, the access require-
ments for construction and maintenance of the wind turbine
and the power collection system, and the construction
practices.
• Soil contamination due to fluid leakage (such as bearing
and gearbox lubricants) or careless transport and transfer
of liquids is as likely for HAWTs as for Darrieus VAWTs.
• HAWTs may pose more of a threat due to the fact that the
power transmission and brake systems are mounted at the
top of the tower
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 Environmental Effect of Turbine Operation

Turbine wake effects

• The wake characteristics downwind of a wind turbine are
important because they have an important influence on:
• turbine arrangement in a wind farm (for optimizing the energy
production);
• the rotor fatigue damage accumulation resulting from the
interaction with the wake of upwind turbines.
• The wake of an upwind turbine reduces the energy yield
of a downwind turbine because of the momentum deficit.
• The performance of downwind turbines are reduced by
the gradients in the mean flow, altered turbulence
structure and the discrete vorticity introduced by the
upwind turbines
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 Environmental Effect of Turbine Operation

Icing effect in cold climates

• Promising areas for wind energy development are
concentrated in regions with very cold temperatures;
• In these regions, wind turbines operate frequently under
severe icing conditions, in combination with high wind
speeds.
• Cold climate and especially icing periods cause a loss of
wind turbine performance, an increase of the structural
loads and maintenance costs. Thus the global cost of
wind energy becomes higher
• Icing of wind turbines is extensively studied

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 Acceptability, Environmental and Social Aspects
of Wind Energy

Environmental Type of Wind Turbine

Aspects HAWT VAWT
Noise may propagate Between up and
Noise Level
due to tower heights downwind of HAWT
Same on low VHF Less interference on
Interference
channels as VAWT all channels
Visual Impact People prefer VAWT
Acceptable
(Aesthetics) medium size
Land Use Less ground area More ground area
Animal Habitat Identical Identical
Soil and Vegetation Identical Identical
Environmental Aspects versus Type of Wind Turbine

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Acceptability, Environmental and Social Aspects
of Wind Energy

Various Effects of Wind Energy

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 Gas Emissions: Wind and Other Energy Sources

The most important environmental benefit of wind

energy is its lack of emissions of both air pollutants
and greenhouse gases like:
 CO2 : carbon dioxide - the leading greenhouse gas
associated with global warming,
 SO2 : sulfur dioxide - leading precursor of acid rain,
 NOX : nitrogen oxides - responsible of smog and
acting also as an acid rain precursor

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 Gas Emissions: Wind and Other Energy Sources

CO2 Emitted Per kWh CO2 Emitted, Total

Fuel kWh Generated Generated, Generation
(in pounds) 1995 (billions) (millions of tons)

Coal 2.12 1653 1754

Natural Gas 1.34 268 180

Oil 1.96 56 55

US Average Fuel
0.0078 2995 11608
Mix

Wind 0 3 0

Carbon dioxide (CO2), The Leading Greenhouse Gas

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 Gas Emissions: Wind and Other Energy Sources

SO2 Emitted Per kWh SO2 Emitted, Total

Fuel kWh Generated Generated, Generation
(in pounds) 1995 (billions) (millions of tons)

Coal 0.0136 1653 11260

Natural Gas 0.000007 268 1

Oil 0.0123 56 345

US Average Fuel
0.0078 2995 11608
Mix

Wind 0 3 0

Sulfur Dioxide (SO2), The Leading Precursor of Acid Rain

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 Gas Emissions: Wind and Other Energy Sources

NOX Emitted
kWh NOX Emitted, Total
Per
Fuel Generated, Generation
kWh Generated
1995 (billions) (millions of tons)
(in pounds)

Coal 0.0079 1653 6514

Natural Gas 0.0046 268 614

Oil 0.0036 56 102

US Average
0.0048 2995 7233
Fuel Mix

Wind 0 3 0

Nitrogen Oxides (Nox), Another Acid Rain Precursor and the Leading Component of Smog

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 Gas Emissions: Wind and Other Energy Sources

• For example, a single 750-kilowatt wind turbine, operated

for one year at a site with winds averaging 12.5-13.4 mph
at 10 metres height can be expected to displace a total of
1,179 tons of carbon dioxide,
6.9 tons of sulfur dioxide,
4.3 tons of nitrogen oxides.
• The most difficult judgment stems from the comparison of
air emissions to other environmental tradeoff issues such
as land and water use, wildlife habitat and biodiversity,
public safety, as well as noise, visual and other social
concerns. This is because all forms of energy production
and use have some important environmental impacts.

22
 Public attitudes
• Several surveys found that the primarily positive points
of wind energy are related to the fact that it is:
 clean,
 renewable,
 safe,
 helps conserve fossil fuels, thus contributing to the
reduction of pollutants gases.
• The principal weaknesses of wind energy are:
 intermittency,
 competitive cost.
• Many different surveys from different countries show that
in general, public support for wind energy is strong and
enthusiastic

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 Social Impact
• The potential of wind energy development in rural areas is
principally in water supply, which results in health and agri-
culture output, and remote area electricity supply needed for
lighting, TV, radios, and other applications as in the case of
Africa, Asia and South America who have poor conditions.
• The energy needs of these communities fall into three
categories:
Energy/power to improve the quality of life,
Energy/power for agriculture,
Energy/power for small industries.
• The most important is the improvement of the quality of life
including water supply.
• To achieve this goal, investigating and analyzing social,
economic, and environmental impacts of setting up wind power
is of great importance, particularly when considering the role of
local residents and the number of jobs that can be created.
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 Social Impact

• At the same time it is important to maintain the existing wind

energy machines and training local community to maintain
the actual systems and promote the expansion of wind
energy.
• A large portion of public who already hear about wind energy is
in favor of its development.
• Hence, before a wind machine operates it is important not only to
install the right machine in the right site but also to convince the
largest portion of public of the necessity of such wind energy
development and that this source of energy is for their benefit.
• Indeed, the action of the public is as important as the installation
of the wind machine since their actions influence directly the
possibility of developing wind energy in their village or town.

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 Wind Power and Traditional Power Sources

• Wind industry represents a global business for which the countries

should prepare good strategies for integrating wind power

• Unfortunately, most countries do not have a political or economic

base for this kind of industry.

• Thus, to date over 80% of the global wind capacity is installed in

developed countries where the “electricity feed laws” have been
introduced to stimulate a market for renewable energy sources.

• These laws are characterized by their system of premium prices

which have proved supportive of wind power.

• However, it is not easy to integrate wind energy into electricity

markets which are traditionally based on large suppliers of thermal
plants.
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 Wind Power and Traditional Power Sources

The wind power meets some barriers when we try to

compare it economically with traditional power sources.
Wind has the disadvantage to be intermittent which raises
questions about grid access and costs.
Up to recently, wind plants have ranged from 1 MW to
30 MW in size, while combined-cycle gas plants have a
capacity between 50 and 500 MW.
The current generation of wind turbines only has a few years
or less of operation which leads to question the reliability and
indirectly makes investment risky.
Utility engineers have been educated in the norms of large
baseload and furthermore, the electricity lenders are
accustomed to the larger projects which charge much higher
interest rates for smaller ones.

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 Conclusions

 Wind has been recognized as one of the most successful

sources of clean, non-polluting and renewable energy.
 It is of great interest because of the rising cost of fuel supplies,
combined with the limited reserve of fossil fuels, and as a result
of legislation to restrict emissions from power sources.
 An average of 70% of the population supports wind energy and
is interested in the development of wind power, despite the
effect of noise, electromagnetic interference and landscape.
 The public opinion would be more positive towards the
development of the wind energy after having passed
through a rigorous program for public education,
particularly the practical aspects of wind energy, and careful
landscape management, taking into account the social values
and cultural history of people living in area where wind power is
installed.

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