A new project launched in Ireland is looking to develop ways of accounting for the value of nature on wind farms and establish an environmental monitoring system across the country that will revolutionise how to measure and monitor biodiversity.
The Nature+Energy project is led by MaREI, the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine teams in Trinity and Maynooth University.
It will develop Natural Capital Accounts and a Biodiversity Action Plan for the wind sector to facilitate the development of biodiversity enhancement measures and help to mitigate the effects of wind farms on key species.
The project is co-funded by Wind Energy Ireland and eight Irish renewable energy companies.
Project coordinator and Trinity College Dublin School of Natural Sciences associate professor Ian Donohue said: “The project is founded on the idea that wind farms have the potential to provide so much more than just renewable energy.
“If managed properly, the biodiversity on 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 the provision of ecosystem services – the ‘jobs’, such as crop pollination and water filtration, that nature does for us for free.
“Wind farms could in effect function almost like mininature reserves throughout the country.
“Climate change and the erosion of biodiversity – the extinction of plant and animal species – 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.”
MaREI director and University College Cork professor of energy engineering in Brian O Gallachoir said: “I’m delighted with and very enthused by this new and important MaREI project.
“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.”
Nature+Energy project also includes collaborators Yvonne Buckley (Nature+ Centre, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin) and Andrew Parnell (Hamilton Institute, Maynooth University).
Aoibheann Gaughran (School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin) has been recruited as project manager.