TY - JOUR
TI - Demonstrating a New Framework for the Comparison of Environmental Impacts from Small- and Large-Scale Hydropower and Wind Power Projects
AU - Bakken, T
AU - Aase, A
AU - Hagen, D
AU - Sundt, H
AU - Barton, D
AU - Lujala, P
T2 - Journal of Environmental Management
AB - Climate change and the needed reductions in the use of fossil fuels call for the development of renewable energy sources. However, renewable energy production, such as hydropower (both small- and large-scale) and wind power have adverse impacts on the local environment by causing reductions in biodiversity and loss of habitats and species. This paper compares the environmental impacts of many small-scale hydropower plants with a few large-scale hydropower projects and one wind power farm, based on the same set of environmental parameters; land occupation, reduction in wilderness areas (INON), visibility and impacts on red-listed species. Our basis for comparison was similar energy volumes produced, without considering the quality of the energy services provided.The results show that small-scale hydropower performs less favourably in all parameters except land occupation. The land occupation of large hydropower and wind power is in the range of 45–50 m2/MWh, which is more than two times larger than the small-scale hydropower, where the large land occupation for large hydropower is explained by the extent of the reservoirs. On all the three other parameters small-scale hydropower performs more than two times worse than both large hydropower and wind power. Wind power compares similarly to large-scale hydropower regarding land occupation, much better on the reduction in INON areas, and in the same range regarding red-listed species. Our results demonstrate that the selected four parameters provide a basis for further development of a fair and consistent comparison of impacts between the analysed renewable technologies.
DA - 2014/07//
PY - 2014
VL - 140
SP - 93
EP - 101
UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479714001388
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2014.01.050
LA - English
KW - Wind Energy
KW - Habitat Change
ER -