Thursday, 29 September 2016
11:30 - 13:00 Environmental case studies: global gain, no local pain!
Environmental impacts & social acceptance  
          

The session will explore case studies and experiences on environmental impacts and will draw lessons for similar projects. There will be a focus on repowering, environmental impact assessments and wildlife.

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Learning objectives

• List top tips for mitigating environmental impact;
• List approaches to optimise the Environmental Impact Assessment process;
• Identify opportunities and challenges moving forward.

Co-chair(s):

Andreas Vlamakis ENTEKA SA, Greece
Co-authors:
Vlamakis Andreas (1) ^F
(1) ENTEKA SA, Chaidari, Greece

Large scale wind farms in Natura 2000 area: technical and legislative tools to mitigate potential environmental impacts

Introduction

The exploitation of wind energy faces social skepticism in case of wind projects located inside Natura 2000 areas, especially Special Protection Areas (SPAs). Collisions of protected bird species on blades is usually presented as the main impact, while other issues such as the so-called “barrier effect” (i.e. the exclusion of certain avian paths due to the existence of wind turbine arrays) and displacement of bird species from their habitats. Unfortunately, the cases of old wind farms of obsolete technology wind turbines (closely spaced layout, high rotational speed, lattice towers etc.) are commonly invoked in order to block the licensing completion of a developed wind farm inside SPAs.

Approach

At the outset, the potential threats of wind turbines to birds and the findings of key papers on this issue are briefly discussed. Then, the case of a mature plan for a large scale wind farm, located inside a Natura 2000 area, is examined: the 333 MW (111 x Vestas V90-3MW) wind project, located in the south part of Skyros Isl., Greece (central Aegean Sea), the so-called “Skyros Project”. A series of technical and legislative tools are applied in order to mitigate the potential impacts of Skyros Project in avian fauna.

Main body of abstract

The 60 out of 111 wind turbines of the Skyros Project are located inside the area GR2420006 “Skyros: Oros Kochylas”, simultaneously a Special Protection Area and Special Area of Conservation of Natura 2000 network. The most important bird species of the area is Falco eleonorae, a medium-sized migratory raptor, which holds a large colony in the southern east coastline of the Skyros Island for the half part of the year (May to October). At the same time, Skyros Isl. constitutes a unique case for wind energy exploitation in the Aegean Sea: excellent wind potential (>9 m/s wind speed at hub height level), no negative effects to other land uses, while the touristic infrastructures of the Skyros Isl. have minor or no visibility to the wind turbines. An extended ecological campaign - including multi-annual field work - has been performed in order to secure that the project won’t affect the conservation status of characterization species of the area, focusing on Falco eleonorae.
For this reason, the legislative “tools” of article 6 of Habitat Directive 92/43/EEC have been applied in order to secure the appropriate assessment of the environmental impacts of the project. Despite the negative findings of the aforementioned process, possible mitigation measures under the framework of the Environmental Liability Directive 2004/35/EC are also discussed.


Conclusion

The rapid progress of wind energy technology not only has improved the exploitation of wind potential, but has also helped to secure the minimum environmental impact in case of large scale wind farms located inside protected areas. In case of the excellent wind potential of the Aegean Sea, where offshore wind farms are still out of discussion because of steep seabed, the Skyros project is a characteristic example of wind projects which will help to catch the National targets for RES penetration, without endangering the natural environment.


Learning objectives
Skyros project provides a striking example on how to tackle challenging environmental issues in the case of large scale wind farms inside protected areas: the wind turbines layout is a multi-layer product of wind maps, terrain inclination maps, protected habitat maps, bird species nests maps etc.