Environmental impact Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Environmental impact - Research Paper ExampleThis research will incur with the description of the project. In 2006, the Department of Trade and Industry highlighted the fact that in next 20 years, up to third of the UKs oil and gas generating susceptibility will be exhausted. Renewable energy has always been part of the United Kingdoms plan of reducing carbon dioxide omissions and also bridging the gap caused by aging nuclear power plants and dying fossil fuel. The plan also includes reducing UKs dependencies on imported energy sources. The only way to character the issue was to increase the proportion of electricity generated from renewable resources such as wind, marine etc. A number of wind farm projects were put into consideration. ace of which was the Beatrice Wind Farm project located at 25km off the east coast of Scotland. The project, which is a joint venture between Talisman Energy and Scotch and Southern Energy, consisted of ii wind turbines designed to examine the po ssibility of creating a commercially large scale wind farm capable of generating large centre of energy. The two wind turbines, which are prototypes of the actual wind farm, are capable of generating 5MW of energy each going in water as deep as 45 meters. The cost of this demonstrator project is estimated to be around 41 million Euros. The actual development however will cover an approximate sphere of influence of 132km2 and will be consisting of 184 turbines in total with the capacity of generating 920MW of energy. The project began in 2007 and was proposed to last 5 years in which these two prototype wind turbines were to be assessed. The construction will begin in 2014 and the farm will be fully operational by 2017. Figure 2) Beatrice wind turbine project showing the two demonstrator turbines (Retrieved from http//www.beatricewind.co.uk/home/default.asp) The two demonstrator wind turbines, which are positioned 500m across each other, were given a run of 5 years by the regimen to merely asses the goods and the bads of the whole project. Its primary purpose was to better understand the impact of deepwater wind farms on the surrounding environment. Although there have been several wind farms already in operation on in UK and Scotland producing around 5 gigwatts GW of energy, a project of this magnitude require some assessment in the beginning. Since the projected field is also home to a number of different species of fish and seals, it is only appropriate to first asses its impact for a certain period of time and accordingly draw any conclusions. Not only that, since it is the first deepwater wind farm project in the world, it adds an extra attention globally. The demonstrator project therefore plays a crucial role in determining whether the large scale farm is effective both in terms of generating energy and its overall cost. During any environmental assessment, the most important part of the process is the scoping process. It is in this stage of the pro ject the key environmental issues are identified. It not only helps pinpointing the problem early in the stage but also allows mitigation design changes to be made. It is during this stage that a project is either continued with or is cancelled keeping in mind its environmental impacts. The scoping exercise of Beatrice wind farm project for this report is based on network diagram technique and the results can be run aground in the following table Scoping Exercise to determine the main impacts Potential Impacts Explanation Mitigation Effect on fish Electric field generated from the turbines my chance on breeding or feeding abilities 1) Electric cables would be buried underground to minimize the effect. 2) Special insulation might be used on the cables to fawn electric fields. Interaction with birds Might cause disturbance in their migration. It may also affect their breeding and feeding behavior. 1) Careful selection of wind turbine blades. 2) supervise of bird movement in the ar ea of the field through radar. Creation of underwater noise May interrupt marine mammal behavior 1) cream of