Cape & Islands News

Report: Little harm from offshore wind farms in Denmark

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story is now available in an updated version here.
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  The photos shown are taken from the PDF of the Danish report link below

15 years' experience shows that offshore wind farms can be built and run without significant damage to the marine environment

Special to cctoday by Jack Coleman
 
A major report just released in Denmark finds negligible impacts to birds, fish and mammals from the two largest offshore wind farms in the world at Horns Rev and Nysted.

"Danish experience for the past 15 years shows that offshore wind farms, if placed right, can be engineered and operated without significant damage to the marine environment and vulnerable species," state the executive summary of the report, titled "Danish Offshore Wind -- Key Environmental Issues," released over the weekend at a conference in Copenhagen on the results of an eight-year long monitoring program.

The report's findings could provide an important boost to the Cape Wind project proposed for Nantucket Sound, now in its sixth year of a rigorous regulatory review.

Among those attending was Craig Olmsted, vice president of development for Cape Wind, the Boston- and Yarmouth-based company seeking to build a 130-turbine wind farm, America's first, in Nantucket Sound.

"Listening to the scientists at the conference who had done the studies it was really clear -- offshore wind farms in Denmark have been good neighbors, to birds, fish and people," Olmsted said in a press release issued today by Cape Wind.

Researchers found that "even big wind farms pose low risks to birds, mammals and fish, even though there will be changes on the living conditions of some species by an increase in habitat heterogeneity."

The wind farms scrutinized in the report were the 80-turbine Horns Rev project (shown at right) situated seven to eight miles off Jutland in the North Sea, the largest in the world as measured by turbines, and the 72-turbine Nysted project in the Baltic Sea six miles off Lolland in southern Denmark. The Nysted wind farm (shown in the photo above left) has the highest generating capacity of any of the world's two dozen offshore wind farms, at 165.5 MW, enough to power 150,000 Danish households, according to the report.

The 144-page report, which includes a wealth of photos, diagrams, charts, maps and attribution, described specific impacts from offshore wind turbines -- to seabed flora and fauna, fish, birds, sea mammals such as porpoises and seals, sociological and economic effects and changes to the coastline ("coastal morphology").

Among its key findings:

• "The Thermal Animal Detection System (TADS) provides empirical evidence that waterbird collisions are rare events. Collision risk modeling and bird tracking by radar as well as visual observations show that many waterbird species tend to avoid the wind farm, changing flight direction some kilometers away to deflect their path around the site. Birds flying through the wind farm tend to alter altitude to avoid the risk of collision. Under adverse weather conditions, which were thought to be likely to increase collision risk, results show that waterbirds tend to avoid flying." In addition, "radar studies at Horns Rev and Nysted (charts above on right) also confirm that many bird entering the wind farms reorientate to fly down between turbine rows, frequently equidistant between turbines, further minimizing collision risk.  
• "Abundance and biomass of the benthic communities increased at the wind farm sites compared to the native infauna communities. A consequence from the change in community structure was a local increase in biomass at the wind turbine sites by 50 to 150 times." And an "initial colonization of high numbers of the common mussel was found at both wind farm sites.
• "Both wind farm areas were found to be part of much larger foraging areas used by seals. No general change in behaviour at sea or on land could be linked to the construction or operation of the wind farms. The only effect detected on land was a reduction in the number of seals on land during pile driving operations at Nysted." Also, "Only a slight decrease in porpoise avoidance was found at Horns Rev during construction and no effect of the operation of the wind farm was seen. A clear decrease in the abundance of porpoises was found at Nysted during construction and operation of the wind farm, with indications of a slow recovery."
• "At both wind farm sites, fish were often found swimming around the artificial reef structures apparently searching for food and shelter."
• "Investigations into the effects on fish and fish behaviour from electromagnetic fields were made at Nysted. Data have documented some effects from the cable route on fish behaviour indicating avoidance of the cable as well as attraction, depending on the species."
• "A sociological and environmental economic study reveals that both the local and national populations are positive towards the offshore wind farms."

“After eight years of study, they've concluded that there's virtually no harm," said Barbara Hill, executive director of the pro-wind farm Clean Power Now advocacy group. "This certainly does underscore many of the benefits of the Cape Wind project, as revealed by the DEIS (draft environmental impact statement) released by the Army Corps of Engineers.”

Also attending the conference, and making trips to three offshore wind farms during a week-long visit to Denmark, was Susan Nickerson, executive director of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, a well-funded local group opposed to Cape Wind.

Nickerson cautioned the results of the report are “site-specific” for the Horns Rev and Nysted projects, not Cape Wind. While findings of negligible impacts to marine life, birds and the environment are “encouraging,” Nickerson said, it came as little surprise since “the siting process has been a very thorough one” in Denmark.

The small Nordic nation began an aggressive push toward conservation, renewables and extracting oil and natural gas from the North Sea in response to the Arab oil embargo of the mid-70s. What has resulted three decades later is a “government-driven” energy policy involving “national interest and public participation,” said Nickerson in a phone interview.

”It’s a very different process here,” she said. “We don’t have a national energy policy, or a national renewable energy policy. The single most important basis for siting the Cape Wind project is economic -- is it going to be profitable for a developer? It’s the reverse of how they do it in Denmark.”

While Denmark has been aggressive in pushing offshore wind, the Danes have also deemed certain coastal areas off-limits to wind turbines, Nickerson said. The report confirms this, stating that “Bird Protection and Habitat Directives areas comprising a total of 13,000 square kilometers have been designated in the Danish waters.”

The report also indicates that Denmark will proceed with plans to double the size of the Nysted and Horns Rev projects in the next few years. While wind power currently provides Denmark with 20 percent of its electricity, the report states, by 2025 it may exceed 50 percent – “out of which most is envisaged to be offshore.”

”We have come a long way since the 1980s, when most electricity consumption was based on coal and when acidification of forests and lakes by acid rain was the predominant theme in the environmental debate,” the report states.

MTC's Watson describes report as "important milestone"

Greg Watson, vice president for sustainable development and renewable energy at theMassachusetts Technology Collaborative, hailed the report as “an important milestone in offshore wind energy development.”

”Comprehensive monitoring of the world’s two largest offshore wind projects have lead Danish government officials to conclude that offshore wind farms can be developed sustainable,” Watson said via email. “That is, in ways that pose minimal environmental risks.”

”I think what is most important about the Danish report is that scientists and government officials have been able to distill general principals from the site-specific monitoring at Horns Rev and Nysted,” Watson said, “principals that, when properly considered and applied can guide developers and regulators to the design of sustainable offshore wind farms in other environments in other parts of the world.

”This is extremely encouraging news in light of the urgent need to find solutions to global climate change,” Watson said. “Wind energy remains the fastest growing and cleanest source of electricity on the world today. An understanding of how to sustainably develop the world’s vast offshore wind resources means we have a viable option for meeting current and future energy needs without further compromising the Earth’s atmosphere and the quality of life of future generations.

Cliff Carroll remains concerned about effects to commercial fishing 

Windstop.org founder Cliff Carroll, a mortgage broker and staunch opponent of Cape Wind, dismissed the report and said he was “not impressed by the spin.”

”This report states that the fishing stock has still not recovered,” Carroll wrote in an email detailing his criticisms. “It has already been four years (since the projects were built). Did I miss something?

”The report indicates an increase in mussels and their predator, the starfish,” Carroll states. “Do you realize that this usually indicates the end of the natural cycle of a marine habitat?”

Carroll also pointed out that 400,000 flights a year pass through the airspace over Nantucket Sound and Cape Wind would be situated in an area with three regional airports. “By the way, did you know that Logan/FAA just turned down four turbines planned just off Hull?” Carroll said. “The radar issue is not going away.”

”Cape Wind has been asked repeatedly to give us the oil data, the wind data and the bird radar studies,” Carroll said. “Ask yourself, what are they afraid of, what are they hiding? This report is like asking Jack Kervorkian to do a study on arsenic.”

CPN’s Barbara Hill compared the initial reaction of Danes to proposed wind farms to the local response to Cape Wind in recent years.

"The local communities did respond with concerns that were incredibly legitimate,” Hill said. "The regulatory process was more centralized and there was no real voice that could be heard from local communities. There was also a concern about the visual intrusions and tourism."

"If we are going to look at this as it relates to the Cape Wind project, those same concerns have been raised," Hill said. "The Cape Wind project continues to move forward because the public benefits outweight the perceived impacts. It continues to move on a track for the particular project. But in tandem, we are awaiting through Minerals Management Service a larger regulatory framework in order to address multiple projects of this type.

"But absent a real project, we would never have had this dialogue. There would have been no reason to."

The report, Hill said, proves that offshore wind power “is now and the future. I hope that itdoes allay some fears and concerns that people have in this country about the Cape Wind project."

The research was coordinated by an "Environmental Group" consisting of the Danish Forest and Nature Agency, the Danish Energy Authority, and Vattenfall and DONG Energy, the companies that own the two wind farms. Its cost was financed by electricity users in Denmark, the report states.

Those serving on the Environmental Group were in "continuous dialogue" with representatives from the World Wide Fund for Nature, the Danish Society of Conservation of Nature, the Danish Outdoor Council, Greenpeace, the Danish Ornithological Society and the Danish Organization for Renewable Energy. Results of the study were assessed by the International Advisory Panel of Experts on Marine Ecology (IAPEME).  See a later version of this story here.

Jack Coleman is a freelance writer, editor, blogger and former media adviser to the pro-wind farm Clean Power Now non-profit based in Hyannis. He can be reached at polnotes@yahoo.com