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Analysis of Environmental Sustainability in South Korean Inland Windfarms

  • Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
  • Abbr : J EIA
  • 2022, 31(1), pp.47-62
  • Publisher : Korean Society Of Environmental Impact Assessment
  • Research Area : Engineering > Environmental Engineering
  • Received : November 29, 2021
  • Accepted : February 3, 2022
  • Published : February 28, 2022

Eunhae Jeong 1

1국립환경과학원

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Wind power has been rapidly growing over last decade in the world as well as in South Korea as a feasible renewable energy source. Providing sustainable energy to all while securing environmental sustainability requires evidence based policy making and innovative solutions. Through analysis of 58 cases of South Korean Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Report, this paper seeks to identify answers to the following two questions. What are the key characteristics for inland windfarm? Is there a way of measuring environmental sustainability to compare each location to reduce negative environmental impact? Variables related to environmental sustainability of each windfarm case were collected from EIA report and the factor analysis of environmental variables was conducted to calculate the weight for each variable to build environmental sustainability index (ESI) to provide as evidence-based tools for decision making on the location of inland windfarm. 58 cases were categorized as three types 1) Mountain type 2) Ranch Type and 3) Coastal Type depending on their height and degree of naturalness. For analytical research, first, it was successfully calculated environmental sustainability of each windfarm case ranging from 1.04 (#33, Ranch type) to -1.44 (#55, Mountain type). Second, the analysis results showed that ranch type is most environmentally sustainable (Average ESI = 0.4551), followed by coastal type (Ave ESI = 0.3712) and lastly mountain type (Average ESI = -0.3457). These findings are consistent with the previous researches on inland windfarms and provides substantive policy implication on the renewable energy policies.

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