Wind industry releases draft guidelines for sustainability
BONN, Germany, 2004-07-21 (Refocus Weekly)
Wind power must be “developed and operated in a sustainable manner” if it is to play an important role in addressing the major global challenges of this century, and the wind industry has published guidelines to achieve that goal.
Wind power, in combination with other renewable energy forms and appropriate
storage facilities, “is making, and will continue to make, a significant
contribution” to the challenge of alleviating poverty and increasing living
standards through the provision of affordable access to electricity and basic
services, says the World Wind Energy Association in its draft ‘Sustainability
& Due Diligence Guidelines’ for wind energy development. That goal is a
“necessary step towards achieving more equity between different socio-economic
groups within nations, and between developed and developing nations.”
Another major challenge is global warming, which is the world’s “most
pressing environmental issue and requires the increasing development of less
carbon intensive methods of energy production,” the draft explains. A third
challenge is the security of energy supply as fossil fuels and nuclear resources
face “significant constraints and even depletion.”
“The sustainability and due diligence guidelines shall promote thorough
consideration of environmental, social and economic outcomes of wind project
development,” says WWEA, which promised to release the guidelines during the
renewable energy conference in Bonn last month. The association is inviting
comments on the draft to open a discussion process that will lead to the steady
improvement of the guidelines.
The final guidelines will include a complementary compliance protocol to form a
checklist for developers, regulators and planners of windfarms.
The guidelines are designed to “promote greater consideration of
environmental, social and economic aspects in the sustainability assessment of
new wind projects,” and are also relevant to the management and operation of
existing wind projects. “Thorough sustainability assessments should ensure
that detrimental social and environmental impacts are avoided, mitigated or
compensated.”
The principles address six elements, including the role of governments and
regulatory frameworks, options evaluation and risk assessment, and managing
environmental and economic outcomes. “The principles have been drafted to
assist wind power developers and operators with the evaluation and management of
often competing environmental, social and economic issues that arise in the
assessment, operation and management of wind power projects.”
WWEA regards sustainable development as “a fundamental component of social
responsibility and participation, sound business practice and natural resource
management,” and says renewables, by definition, fulfil these criteria and “will
therefore deliver indispensable contributions to sustainable development.”
WWEA has 150 members from 56 countries, which lobbies for the “complete
substitution of all fossil and nuclear sources by renewable energies with wind
energy as one cornerstone.”
Click
here for more info...
Visit http://www.sparksdata.co.uk/refocus/ for your international energy focus!!
|