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TECHNICAL AREA
Environmental Impact |
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IMPACTS/LANDSCAPE:
Wind turbines are always clearly visible. If not, they are not suitably placed from a meterorological point of view. Consequentty, they produce a big impact on landscape. This impact can be considered positive or unacceptable, depending on individual perceptions. Anyway, the creation of wind farms is abided by the appropiate environmental actions in order to proted vegetation, avoid the pass of vehicles, etc.
IMPACTS/FAUNA AND FLORA:
Other criticized aspects are the troubles that supposedly wind turbines cause to the flora and the fauna (especially to the birds). In this field, it is better to take into account the studies made by scientifics, like the one that the Regional Ministry of Environment of Navarra is currently doing. This study is based on the connection that exists between the bird life and the wind farms of the Regional Community. The conclusions of the first stage of the work, developed between march, 2000 and march , 2001, have determined a rate of bird´s collisions of 0,1%. Similar studies developed in Demmark have determined that birds get used to wind turbines in a short period of time and they change their flight path in order to avoid collisions.
IMPACTS/NOISE:
Noise pollution caused by wind turbines in the 80 is not considered a problem, because sonorous emissions of present turbines have been reduced by 50%.
IMPACTS/LIGHT GREY PAINTING:
The light grey painting of the turbines make the wind turbines blend with the landscape.
IMPACTS/WIND TURBINES SIZE:
Big wind turbines produce the same quantity of energy using fewer wind turbines. This fact can represent economic advantages, like less cost of maintenance.
From an aesthethic point of view, big wind turbines mean also an advantage because generally, they have a velocity of rotation less than little turbines. In general, big turbines don´t attract attention the same way than the objects which move quickly.
impacts/ANALYSIS OF THE SOTAVENTO WIND FARM :
In this chapter we identify and valuate the possible environmental alterations that the setting up of Sotavento Experimental Wind Farm coud produce from the analysis of the Projet and its repercussions on the environmen, studying all the impacts, even those of low risk or low probability that could appear.
The methodology is based on the valuation of each type of impact, taking into account credibility and degree of importance, in order to analyse all the determinant aspects that are favorable to the global impact and to stablish its seriousness.
They have been taken into account the levels of seriousness that the Decree 442/1990 of Valuation of Environmental Impact for Galicia provides for: critical, hard, moderate and compatible.
In addition, the impacts are valuated according to their possible influence and their complementary characteristics:
| Sign |
Positive(+), negative(-), or null(0) |
| Length |
Temporal(TEM) or permanent(PEM) |
| Evolution |
Simple,(SIM), cumulative(ACU), or synergic(SIN) |
| Origin |
Direct(DIR) or indirect(IND) |
| Reversibility |
Reversible(TEV) or irreversible(IRV) |
| Recoverability |
Recoverable(REC) or irrecoverable(IRC) |
| Persistence |
Periodic(PER) or irregular(IRG) |
| Continuity |
Continuous(CON) or discontinuous(DIS) |
| Magnitude |
Very low, low, medium, high and very high |
| Impact |
Compatible (COMP), moderated (MOD), hard (SEVE) o critical (CRIT) |
The meanings of all the concepts previously indicated are explained in the table(RD 1131/88):
| CONCEPTO |
DEFINICIÓN |
| Positive effect |
It is the one admitted as positive, both by the technical and scientific community and by the population, in the context of a complete analysis of the generic costs and profits and the outsourcingof the action. |
| Negative effect |
It is the one that can be translated as a lost of naturalistic, aesthetic, cultural, landscape value, value of ecological productivity or in the increase of the damage derived from pollution, erosion or silting and the other environmental risks that contradict the ecological-geographical erosion, the character and the personality of a determined location. |
| Null effect |
It is the one that can not be considered positive nor negative. |
| Direct effect |
It is the one that has an immediate incidence on some environmental aspect. |
| Indirect effect |
It is the one that means immediate incidence in relation to interdependence or, in general, in relation to the relationship between one sector and the other. |
| Simple effect |
It is the one that only affects one environmental component or that which way of action is individualized, without consequences on the induction of new effects, nor in its accumulation or synergy. |
| Cumulative effect |
It is the one that when the action of the inductor agent goes on in time, the gravity is progressively increased because there are not mechanisms of elimination with temporal effectiveness similar to that of the increase of the agent that produces the damage. |
| Synergetic effect |
It is the one that appears when the combined effect of the simultaneous presence of several agents means an environmental incidence bigger than the addition effect of the individual incidences.Likewise, this type includes that effect which way of action induce in time the appereance of another. |
| Permanet effect |
It is the one that means an indefinite alteration of the time of factors of action that prevail in the structure or function of the systems of ecological or environmental relationships present in the location. |
| Temporal effect |
It is the one that means an alteration not permanent in time,with a temporal period of show that could be estimated or determined. |
| Reversible effect |
It is the one of which alteration can become assimilated by the environment, in a medium period, owing to the running of the natural processes of the ecological sequence, and the mechanisms of self-treatment of the environment. |
| Irreversible effect |
It is the one that means the impossibility or the "extreme difficulty" of coming back to the situation previous to the action. |
| Recoverable effect |
It is the one of which alteration can be eliminated by the natural action or by human action, that of which alteration can be replaceable. |
| Irrecoverable effect |
It is the one in which the alteration or loss that it means can´t be restored by natural or human action. |
| Periodic effect |
It is the one that comes out with an intermittent way of action;continuous in time. |
| Irregular effect |
It is the one that comes out in an unforeeseable way.The alterations must be valued depending on the probability of occurrence, above all, in not periodical or continuous cicumstances, but exceptionally serious. |
| Continuous effect |
It is the one that comes out through irregular alterations in its permance. |
| Efecto discontinuo |
Aquel que se manifiesta a través de alteraciones irregulares o intermitentes en su permanencia. |
| Compatible impact |
It is the one of which recoverability is immediate after the cessation of the activity.It doesn´t need protective or corrective practices. |
| Impacto moderado |
Aquel en el que la recuperación no precisa prácticas protectoras o correctoras intensivas, y en el que la consecución de las condiciones ambientales iniciales requiere cierto tiempo. |
| Hard impact |
It is the one of which recoverability of the conditions of the medium demands the adaptation of the protective and corrective measures.But even with these measures, that recoverability demands a long period of time. |
| Cricital impact |
It is the one of which magnitude is superior to the acceptable threshold.This impact causes a permanent loss of the quality of the environmental conditions, without possible recoverability, even getting protective or corrective measures. |
Analysis of impact:
| DISEASE |
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| Phase of construction |
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| Atmospheric impact |
- |
TEM |
SIM |
DIR |
REV |
REC |
PER |
DIS |
MEDIUM |
COMP |
| Sonorous impact |
- |
TEM |
SIM |
DIR |
REV |
REC |
IRG |
DIS |
HIGH |
COMP |
| Electromagnetic impact |
0 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
NULL |
| Impact on the soil |
- |
PEM |
SIM |
DIR |
IRV |
IRC |
PER |
CON |
HIGH |
SEVE |
| Impact on the vegetation |
- |
PEM |
SIM |
DIR |
IRV |
IRC |
PER |
CON |
HIGH |
SEVE |
| Impact on the fauna |
- |
TEM |
SIM |
DIR |
REV |
REC |
PER |
DIS |
MEDIUM |
COMP |
| Water impact |
- |
TEM |
SIM |
DIR |
REV |
REC |
PER |
DIS |
LOW |
COMP |
| Impact on the landscape |
- |
TEM |
SIM |
DIR |
REV |
REC |
PER |
DIS |
LOW |
COMP |
| Socio-economic impact |
+ |
TEM |
SIM |
DIR |
REV |
REC |
PER |
DIS |
HIGH |
COMP |
| Phase of explotation |
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| Atmospheric impact |
0 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
NULL |
| Sonorous impact |
- |
PEM |
ACU |
DIR |
REV |
REC |
PER |
CON |
HIGH |
COMP |
| Electromagnetic impact |
- |
TEM |
SIN |
DIR |
REV |
REC |
PER |
DIS |
M.LOW |
COMP |
| Impact on the soil |
0 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
NULL |
| Impact on the vegetation |
- |
PEM |
SIM |
DIR |
REV |
REC |
PER |
DIS |
M.LOW |
COMP |
| Impact on the fauna |
- |
PEM |
SIM |
DIR |
REV |
REC |
PER |
CON |
HIGH |
COMP |
| Water impact |
0 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
NULL |
| Impact on the landscape |
- |
PEM |
ACU |
DIR |
REV |
REC |
PER |
CON |
MEDIUM |
COMP |
| Socio-economic impact |
+ |
PEM |
ACU |
DIR |
REV |
REC |
PER |
CON |
MEDIUM |
COMP |
| Phase of abandon |
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| Global impact |
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COMP |
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