sustainable land use against the background of a...

Sustainable land use against the background of a growing wind power industry

International Conference “Impact Assessment of Land Use Changes”, Berlin, April 8, 2008

Foto: Sönke Morsch, http://www.fotonatur.de/

Dr. Jan Monsees, Department of Economics

Outline

Wind power at the heart of conflicting policy objectives

The research project

The study area

Spacing requirements and land consumption

The potential of Re-Powering

Conclusion and outlook

Windkraftnutzung

Wind Power

Exhaustibility of Fossil FuelsOligopolistic Oil/Gas Markets

CO2 EmissionsGlobal Warming

posi

tive

Sustainable Climateand Energy Policies

Land ConsumptionNatural Scenery

Nature Conservation(Birds, Bats)

negative

SustainableLand Use

Conflicting policy objectives

Research project „Sustainable land use againstthe backdrop of conflicting environmental policyobjectives as illustrated by wind power production“

Funding institution: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research Research program “fona”, funding priority “Economic Sciences for Sustainability”

Project executing organization: DLR German Aerospace Center, Bonn

Duration: February 2007 – January 2010

2 Research partners: Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig 4 Departments: Economics (Lead), Ecological Modelling, Environmental and Planning Law, Environmental Informatics Technical University Berlin, Chair in Environmental and Land Economics

2 subcontractors

6 accompanying partners from administrative bodies, planning offices, industry associations and NGOs

Research objectives

Development of an ecological-economic modelling tool in order to support empirically well-founded decisions regarding site selection for wind turbines

Quantification of negative externalities of wind power production by means of willingness to pay surveys and analysis

Assessment of the influence of alternative placement of wind turbinesin the landscape on the individual preferences for wind power

Contribution to the assessment of environmental and planning legislationand legal practice regarding the designation of land for wind turbines

Recommendations regarding optimization of site selection for wind turbines in two German regions: Western Saxony and Northern Hesse

EEM – Ecological-economic modelling UFZ Leipzig - ECON/OESA

CE – Choice experiment TU Berlin and subcontractor USUMA

Analysis of environmental and planning legislation and legal practice UFZ-UPR

GIS and MULBO UFZ-OESA/ECON and subcontractor OLANIS

VisLab – Visualisation technology UFZ-CES with ECON/OESA and TUB

Research methods

The study area Western SaxonyStatus: 31.12.2007

222 Wind turbines

235 MW installed capacity

occupying 0.25 % of surface

producing 400 GWh electric current

approx. 3 % of power consumption

avoiding 340,000 tons CO2

Sources: LfUG, RPV, TUM, UFZ

Wind turbine (Status: 2006)

Planning region

County

Autobahn

Bundesstrasse (A-road)

Legend

Chart: LfUG Saxony 2006

Study area Western Saxony

Distribution of wind energybased on the energeticallyweighted frequency distributionof wind speed and direction

kW in 80 m charted elevation

Source: DWD 2007

Chart: M. Eichhorn/UFZ 2007

Wind potential in Western Saxony

Regulation of wind turbine installation

Wind turbine installation is governed through building and planning laws

Immission control standards (e.g., noise, shadow cast) to be observed

Nature conservation and landscape protection requirements to be observed

Several German Bundeslaender recommend height limits and spacingrequirements which go beyond these standard provisions

Regional planning bodies designate privileged zones for wind parks

Municipalities sometimes set additional limits regarding heights

Spacing requirements„Regional Plan“ of Western Saxony requires a minimum area of 10 ha for a privileged wind park and a 5 km outward buffer area

No wind turbines allowed in nature reserves, landscape protection areas, forests, heathlands …

Buffer areas to forests, roadways, rail tracks, pipelines, excavation sites

Up to 750 m spacing towards residential areas: max. height 100 m

Within 750 m – 1,000 m: minimum distance 10x turbine‘s hub height

Result: allowed total wind turbine heights vary with spacing towardsresidential areas

1,000 m spacing minimum for today‘s common turbines(total heights: 120 m / 150 m)

Impact of spacing requirements on site selectionat the regional level

Legend

Chart: M. Eichhorn/UFZ 2008

Study area Western Saxony

Open land at different spacing requirements

Residential areas

Other excluded areas(forests, heathlands, etc.)

Privileged wind park zone

Example: Ottendorf municipality,County Stade, Lower Saxony

Privileged zone for wind turbines

at 500 m spacing toward residential areas

at 1,000 m spacing toward residential areas

Cutback of privileged zone: 65.5 %

Source: Rehfeldt and Wallasch /Deutsche WindGuard 2005

Impact of spacing requirements on site selectionat the local level

The importance of valid calculation methods

Given the scarcity of land and the rivalry of different land uses –different calculation methods of land consumption are coming to the fore

While the land actually covered by the foundation, access roads etc. is rather small– the total area exhausted is far-reaching due to the visual impact on the landscape

However, generally accepted methods of calculation do not exist as yet –estimates in the literature vary considerably, leaving ample scope for interpretation

Wizelius (2007): 0.018 – 0.49 ha/MW (studies conducted in the UK)

Schmitt et al. (2006): 0.1 ha/MW foundation, including auxiliaries (minimum) 0.6 ha/MW circular area underneath the rotor blades)6 ha/MW toppling distance circular area18 ha/MW virtual wind park method (max. spatial strain)

Jansen et al. (2005): 7 ha/MW on average (study conducted in Germany) 5 ha/MW by means of repowering

Height effect on energy yields –the counterproductivity of turbine height limits

Comparison of energy yieldsof a 2 MW wind turbineat a hinterland sitefor 3 different hub heights:85 / 108 / 138 m and respective wind speeds31% yield increase withoutadditional land consumptionSource: Jan Eden /Bremer Landesbank 2007

4500

5000

5500

6000

6500

7000

7500

HH 85 m HH 108 m HH 138 m

5249 MWh

5947 MWh

6886 MWh

5

5.5

6

6.5

7

7.5

4000

8

7.2 m/s

7.7 m/s

6.7 m/s

Energy yieldin MWh

Wind speedin m/s

Technological progress in wind power industry

Performanceenhancementof wind turbines

In 20 years:+ Hub height 300 % + Capacity 5,000 % + Yield 10,000 %

In 25 years:+ Hub height 400 % + Capacity 16,700 % + Yield 48,500 %

Source: BWE 2007

Re-Powering – utilizing technological progress

Replacement of old turbines by state-of-the-art turbines

Fewer wind turbines generate the same energy yield (min.: less than half)

Higher wind energy yields from the same area of land (factor 2.2 – 4.3)

Result: Less land consumption

Intelligent placement: Concentration lessens the strain on the landscape

Re-allocation of turbines from less suitable to more suitable sites

Modern turbines rotate much slower, thus reducing inconveniences for humans

Increased efficiency lower production costs cheaper CO2-reduction

Before

After

The potential of repowering: before and after

Windpark Hemme(Mecklenburg-Wes-tern Pomerania)

Source: BWE 2007

Conclusion and outlookWind power technology has made impressive progress in the last 25 years

Today wind power is an effective instrument to cut down CO2 emissions

Adverse effects of wind power can be reduced through repowering

However, repowering is blocked to a considerable degree by the land useregulations operative at present

Height limits and spacing requirements beyond immission control standardsresult in the loss of a large economic potential for wind power

Further research into the development of valid calculation methodsfor land consumption and visual impact of wind turbines

Matching of individual preferences for alternative siting and configurationof wind parks with regional wind potential by means of EEM

T h a n k y o u

f o r y o u r

A t t e n t i o n

Contact: [email protected]

[email protected] (project leader)

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