8
1 Role of Wind as a Renewable Energy
– Animals and habitat It is understood that nature reserves and National parks are not open for installing WES. The main focus is, however, on the danger posed by wind turbines for flying birds. Many investigations have been made; roughly the results is that birds are less endangered than was feared by nature preserving organizations. More detailed studies are still underway. – Appearance in the landscape Undoubtedly WES have an influence on the landscape phenotype. In regions where tourists are of economical importance it has been argued that visitors may be repelled by the negative impact of extensive wind mast installations in the landscape. In effect, in some inland regions of countries like Germany it is has become hard to identify further locations for wind parks. Offshore wind parks are expected to ease the situation, however they give rise to other environmental concerns (see 8.1).
1.2.3 Governmental Regulations In Europe there has been a strong policy support both at EU and national level. The EU Renewable Directive (77/2001/EC) is in place since 2001. The aim is to increase the share of energy produced from renewable energy sources to 21% by 2010. According to the directive, each member state is obliged to generate a specific percentage of its electrical energy from renewables. It is up to the member states to promote renewables by appropriate measures. The EU member states apply different schemes to promote generation and consumption. The methods vary from guaranteed feed-in tariffs, fixed premium, green certificate systems to tendering procedures, complemented by tax incentives, environmental taxes, contribution programs and voluntary agreements. An overview of schemes supporting renewable electrical energy in the EU 25 is given in Fig. 1.6 [ISI06]. In the USA renewable energies are promoted by granting Production Tax Credits (PTC), the relevant schedules decided by federal legislation [AWEA]. Where feed-in tariffs exist (e.g. in Germany), utilities are obliged to enable wind parks to connect to the grid, and to pay a minimum fixed price for the supplied renewable energy. In specific regulations the price is guaranteed over a certain time, reductions being applied normally with increasing age of the systems. The additional cost above conventional generation is passed on to the consumers. Feed-in tariffs have proven to offer investment security and contain incentives for technological progress. A variant of feed-in tariffs is a fixed-premium scheme (e.g. Denmark, Spain), where a bonus is paid to the producers above the normal electricity price. In the Green Certificate scheme (e.g. Belgium, Italy, Poland, UK and Sweden) the producers sell electrical energy at market prices, within a quota set be the government. The consumers have to purchase from the producers. Penalties are established for non-compliance. A secondary market for green certificates comes into existence