Wind Farms and Biodiversity: Improving Environmental Risk Assessments - Wind and Wildlife - page 39

Wind Farms and Biodiversity: Improving
Environmental Risk Assessments

I. K. G. Boothroyd and L. P. Barea

Abstract Greenhouse gasses are widely acknowledged as the primary cause of
anthropogenically driven climate change. As part of its response to climate change,
the New Zealand Government has adopted a target for renewable electricity generation
of 90 % by 2025. Currently New Zealand has 16 wind farms in operation with a
combined capacity of 622 MW. Wind-generated power, combined with a projected
six-fold increase in wind generated electricity by 2030 has the potential to contribute
signifi cantly to New Zealand's renewable targets. In New Zealand, wind energy
developments require resource consent under the Resource Management Act 1991
involving the preparation of an Assessment of Environmental Effects to identify and
address the risks of a proposal to the environment, including biodiversity.
Quantitative methods require empirical data while more qualitative approaches can
be based more on knowledge of the topography and sensitivity of the ecosystems.
Adopting quantitative approaches can provide a structured approach to study design,
data needs and analysis that objectively inform a risk assessment, decisions about
the appropriateness of a development, the mitigation hierarchy and, when required,
the development of biodiversity offsets. Stratifi ed qualitative approaches that use
ranked data of signifi cant habitats and/or species of regional or national signifi cance
can also inform decision making. We illustrate these principles with case studies
involving modelling of collision risk for the threatened New Zealand falcon based
on radio tracking data, and the use of a risk envelope for a wind farm based on
habitat and species assessments.

Keywords Wind farms • Biodiversity • Risk assessment • Collision risk •

Constraints mapping