TY - CONF
TI - Cautious but Committed - Towards a More Adaptive Environmental Planning Approach for Wind Energy?
AU - Köppel, J
T2 - 2013 Conference on Wind Power and Environmental Impacts
AB - Our energy supply has been undergoing a steady transition from a mostly centralized power plant and transmission grid structure to a more decentralized and spatially relevant share of renewable energies. This applies just for wind energy even more as not only rural terrestrial landscapes have faced such change but also marine seascapes. Furthermore, a forerunner on wind energy deployment like Germany with its 30 GW installed capacity approaches a new milestone as far as an extended usage of forested landscapes lies ahead. Steady uncertainties have accompanied these policies and implementation process and we have faced the ongoing dilemma of a sound decision making for wind energy sites without sufficient empirical evidence of its literal impacts. Even planning innovations have been brought forward respectively, be it marine spatial planning, new approaches in regional planning and local zoning, be it outstanding programmatic environmental assessments in the United States or ambitious baseline and monitoring programs as the German offshore EIA standards. At the same time, planning and impact assessments have been used to dealing with uncertainties, thus having challenged traditional approaches by more incremental approaches as well. However, most actors have favoured a definitely cautious roadmap for decision making on wind energy sites, sticking to the precautionary principle as a well-established environmental policy approach. This triggered often far-going exclusions of sites already on regional levels and negative planning approaches. Other actors like proponents are questioning the predominance of an overdone precautionary approach and call for a more evidence-based and site-specific planning approach for wind energy, even claiming a necessary paradigm shift.
DA - 2013/02//
PY - 2013
SP - 1
EP - 23
UR - http://www.naturvardsverket.se/CWE2013/Keynote-presentation-johann-koppel/
LA - English
KW - Wind Energy
KW - Fixed Offshore Wind
KW - Human Dimensions
KW - Legal & Policy
ER -