Nature+Energy project to benefit vicinities of wind farms

A new system for protecting key species and accounting for the value of nature in the vicinity of wind farms is to be rolled out across the country.

The environmental monitoring system is predicted to revolutionise how Irish biodiversity is measured. It was devised by scientists in Trinity College Dublin, MaREI energy institute in University College Cork and Maynooth University.

The Nature+Energy project aims to maximise the benefits of biodiversity near onshore wind farms. The experts involved will develop “natural capital accounts” and a biodiversity action plan for the wind sector to facilitate nature-enhancement measures and to help mitigate the effects of wind farms on species and habitats. Natural capital accounting is a tool to integrate nature into decision-making.

The project is co-funded by Wind Energy Ireland and eight Irish renewable energy companies including the ESB. Together they manage and supply almost 2.5 gigawatts (60 per cent) of the Republic's onshore wind energy.

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The initiative is based on "the idea that wind farms have the potential to provide so much more than just renewable energy", according to project co-ordinator Dr Ian Donohue of TCD Centre for Biodiversity and Sustainable Nature-Based Solutions.

Habitat diversity

It recognises the need to enhance nature’s contributions through improving understanding of “how habitat diversity and connectivity can be enhanced by wind farm land management for conservation”.

If managed properly, biodiversity at onshore wind farms has the potential to not only take even more carbon out of the atmosphere, but also to improve resilience of ecosystems to climate change and enhance provision of ecosystem services, he said – “the ‘jobs’, such as crop pollination and water filtration, that nature does for us for free”.

Wind farms could in effect function almost like miniature reserves throughout the country, Dr Donohue said. "Climate change and the erosion of biodiversity . . . are the twin environmental crises facing all of humanity. By focusing on solutions for overcoming these problems, this project gives us the opportunity to showcase how researchers and industry can work together to develop genuine win-win scenarios for the economy and the environment."

It was hoped this approach would be applied to offshore wind farms in due course, he said.

Electricity demand

In 2020, wind energy supplied 36 per cent of total electricity demand, and overall renewable electricity supply is set to rise to 70 per cent by 2030 as new wind and solar farms are built. “This will help Ireland to reduce its reliance on environmentally harmful fossil fuels and meet its climate change targets,” said MaREI director Prof Brian Ó Gallachóir.

He added: “Ireland is world-leading in addressing the challenges of integrating wind energy into power systems and we have a tremendous wind resource. Government policy is to more than double current wind power levels by 2030. Nature+Energy will provide the evidence to ensure this growth takes place in a manner that maximises biodiversity.”

Natural capital accounts will be developed for the wind sector, which will form the basis for a decision-support tool for land-use planning for onshore wind energy, confirmed Nature+Energy principal investigator Prof Jane Stout of TCD.

She described natural capital as an economic metaphor for nature. “It’s a concept that frames natural systems as stocks of assets that provide a flow of benefits to people. Building on previous projects led by Trinity, this project will develop ways to assess natural capital on wind farm sites.”