Reconciling Biodiversity Conservation and Widespread Deployment of Renewable Energy Technologies in the UK
| Autor: | Richard B. Bradbury, Colin Campbell, Rowena H. W. Langston, Leah J. Williams, Emma Teuten, Philippa Roddis, Benedict Gove, Alison E. Beresford |
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| Rok vydání: | 2016 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Physical Mapping lcsh:Medicine Marine and Aquatic Sciences Wind 02 engineering and technology 01 natural sciences Energy engineering 0202 electrical engineering electronic engineering information engineering lcsh:Science Wind Power Conservation Science Multidisciplinary Wind power Ecology Environmental resource management Marine Ecology Agriculture Biodiversity Renewable energy Community Ecology Engineering and Technology Alternative Energy Energy source Research Article Conservation of Natural Resources Farms Resource (biology) 020209 energy Ecological Risk Marine Biology Research and Analysis Methods 010603 evolutionary biology Solar Energy Water Movements Renewable Energy Molecular Biology Techniques Molecular Biology business.industry lcsh:R Ecology and Environmental Sciences Gene Mapping Marine technology Biology and Life Sciences United Kingdom Energy and Power Software deployment Earth Sciences Alternative energy Environmental science lcsh:Q business |
| Zdroj: | PLoS ONE PLoS ONE, Vol 11, Iss 5, p e0150956 (2016) |
| ISSN: | 1932-6203 |
| DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0150956 |
| Popis: | Renewable energy will potentially make an important contribution towards the dual aims of meeting carbon emission reduction targets and future energy demand. However, some technologies have considerable potential to impact on the biodiversity of the environments in which they are placed. In this study, an assessment was undertaken of the realistic deployment potential of a range of renewable energy technologies in the UK, considering constraints imposed by biodiversity conservation priorities. We focused on those energy sources that have the potential to make important energy contributions but which might conflict with biodiversity conservation objectives. These included field-scale solar, bioenergy crops, wind energy (both onshore and offshore), wave and tidal stream energy. The spatially-explicit analysis considered the potential opportunity available for each technology, at various levels of ecological risk. The resultant maps highlight the energy resource available, physical and policy constraints to deployment, and ecological sensitivity (based on the distribution of protected areas and sensitive species). If the technologies are restricted to areas which currently appear not to have significant ecological constraints, the total potential energy output from these energy sources was estimated to be in the region of 5,547 TWh/yr. This would be sufficient to meet projected energy demand in the UK, and help to achieve carbon reduction targets. However, we highlight two important caveats. First, further ecological monitoring and surveillance is required to improve understanding of wildlife distributions and therefore potential impacts of utilising these energy sources. This is likely to reduce the total energy available, especially at sea. Second, some of the technologies under investigation are currently not deployed commercially. Consequently this potential energy will only be available if continued effort is put into developing these energy sources/technologies, to enable realisation of their full potential. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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