Geographic Information Systems and Wind Farm Development
Over
the last several years the wind power sector has experienced a steep learning
curve associated with evolving regulations, political perspectives and public
concerns. Evolving and regionally specific guidelines, combined with the timeframe required
from initiation of a wind farm project to operation, create an assortment of
issues for wind farm developers. Geographic Information System (GIS) is one
tool that has the capability and functionality to handle the dynamic nature of
wind farm projects.
There
are a diverse array of factors that influence the feasibility, layout, and approach
to construction of a wind farm. In conjunction with these factors, differences in guidelines pose a challenging task for wind
developers to efficiently assess the implications on project feasibility or
layout. Wind developers across Canada use GIS to effectively solve the complex
and potentially evolving character of the design and approvals landscape.
GIS
is typically used by many wind developers for its simple mapping and layering capability.
Forward-thinking wind developers have realized that GIS can play a key
supportive role in decision making processes throughout the development of a
wind farm project. As data is added and manipulated and guidelines are altered
for a project, a GIS can quickly provide visual results to the client. A quick
call from the field or boardroom can be translated into a series of maps,
analysis and reports that can provide time-sensitive information to the wind
developer. This assessment can help
identify the ‘ripple effect’ of small changes to the wind power project on a
wide range of aspects such as land leases, wind values, environmental and
social impacts, construction costs, return on investment, and ultimately
project feasibility.
GIS can be used throughout the life of a wind power
project. During the beginning stages of development,
a GIS can be used to evaluate a wide range of scenarios considering wind
values, leased land distributions as well as environmental, visual and noise implications. For example, depending on the landscape, constraints
surrounding environmental features such as streams, wetlands or woodlots can
account for a large percentage of existing leased land becoming unusable. In other landscapes, setbacks from property
boundaries, settlements, etc can have an equally significant influence. These implications can vary widely between
landscapes, making a GIS very valuable in assessing initial project feasibility,
the need for additional land leases, and the proper placement of turbines. GIS can easily and quickly illustrate the
inter-connections between project components and the need for further detailed
assessments such as environmental and noise assessments. Perhaps the best example illustrating the
effectiveness of using GIS during the initial stages of developing a wind farm
is from examples where GIS was not used. By not using the capabilities of GIS, a
developer could make uninformed decisions prior to proper analysis taking place
which can potentially lead to very costly and unwanted results. Wind projects can result in half as many
turbines being constructed as once planned or even entire projects being
cancelled as a result of mistakes being noticed too late in the development
process. Conversely, developers with the
foresight to use GIS as an integrated part of the decision making process
throughout the development of their project are rewarded with efficiency and
potentially enormous cost savings. With
GIS, turbines layouts and other project components can be adjusted as new data
becomes available and impacts can be assessed and dealt with quickly by the
developer. By using GIS, mistakes can be
avoided, decisions can be made and the appropriate action can be taken to
ensure very few, if any, turbines are lost to feature constraints of the
project.
Through the Environmental Assessment (EA) process, biologists
gather a range of data on the environment within the wind farm study area. Information on the vegetation types, habitat
and species found in the area are collected and brought into a GIS to
illustrate these environmental features in relation to the proposed project. This information along with the data collected
for wind, noise, soils, and shadow flicker as well as any government guidelines,
can impact proposed turbine layouts, access roads and cabling routes. For example, potential access road layouts, which
connect the main road to the base of the turbine, are often initially designed
with efficiency and cost in mind. In
some cases lack of information can have access roads cutting through woodlots
or creeks. By overlaying field data with
these proposed roads in GIS the developer can easily decide how to design these
layouts with cost, efficiency and natural features in mind.
Wind power projects in Ontario have recently been
challenged by the Ministry of Environment’s revision to the noise setbacks for
residential buildings to 550 meters. Changes
such as these can potentially cancel or severely limit wind projects if the
developer is unable to adapt quickly. By using a GPS device in conjunction with
GIS software, a GIS Analyst can collect accurate and up to date positions of
all dwellings within the proposed project area.
This data in a GIS can allow developers to be quickly informed of how
these changes will impact which proposed turbine, which land leases are most
valuable and what other lands may be considered for project expansion. This service and capability is invaluable to
a wind developer when time and expanding costs are an enormous factor in the
completion and overall success of a wind farm project.
Wind
farm projects can range from less than ten turbines to hundreds of
turbines. When taking into consideration
all the analysis, planning, construction, post construction monitoring and reporting
that takes place, these projects can cost millions to hundreds of millions of
dollars. With projects of this size, a
company needs to make informed, quick and cost effective decisions. A GIS is an effective decision support tool, guiding
the wind developer and allowing them to confidently decide in which direction
their project should proceed. GIS is a
major contributor and will help companies
and wind farm development to grow and achieve success.
Shawn MacDonald
GIS
Analyst II
Natural Resource Solutions Inc.