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Wind energy and environmental impact What is an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)?
A crucial part of getting the go-ahead for a wind proposal, is an assessment of the potential environmental impacts that may occur. In plans for over 5MW the developer is legally obliged to employ a consultant to assess these impacts in the form of an Environmental Impact Assessment. The assessment not only includes potential ecological effects throughout all stages of the development (building, operation, and decommissioning), but also considers any potential impacts on natural processes such as coastal erosion, or on human activities such as fishing.
The results will be published in the form of a huge document called the Environmental Statement (ES). You can usually read a copy of the ES for any locally proposed wind farms in your local library. It can be very long and is not always written with a layperson in mind. There should also be a summary of the ES's main findings available, either as part of the main ES document or separately. This is called a non-technical summary and can usually be obtained from the developers directly (free of charge) or will be on the developers web site.
The EIA or ES can be an extremely useful tool when writing letters to planners and/or to the media as it will normally address issues of concern for opponents of the wind farm. Reading the summary, or relevant sections of the full document, can mean that you able to speak with confidence when defending particular wind farm proposals.
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