TY - JOUR
T1 - Environmental impacts and risks of the national renewable energy targets
T2 - A review and a qualitative case study from Finland
AU - Holma, A.
AU - Leskinen, P.
AU - Myllyviita, T.
AU - Manninen, K.
AU - Sokka, Laura
AU - Sinkko, T.
AU - Pasanen, K.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was conducted as part of the Evaluation of environmental effects and risks of renewable energy production and use (UUSRISKI) – project funded by the Finnish Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Employment and the Economy and Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry . In addition, the study was supported by the research project “Sustainable, climate-neutral and resource-efficient forest-based bioeconomy”, funded by the Academy of Finland, Strategic Research Council (decision no 293380 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017
Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/2/1
Y1 - 2018/2/1
N2 - The EU is aiming to increase the utilisation of renewable energy to 20% of the total energy consumption by 2020. For Finland, the target is 38%. Renewable energy sources are assumed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions when compared to fossil fuels. Yet not all environmental impacts of renewable energy use are thoroughly assessed, and there are no comprehensive assessments on the impacts and risks of renewable energy production that would take into account all possible environmental impacts. We applied qualitative expert knowledge to attain information on the impacts and risks of renewable energy in Finland. According to the expert panel, the overall impacts of renewable energy by 2020 are not significant. However, we found some hot spot areas, i.e. areas of the most concern related to particulate matter formation during regional wood combustion, climate impacts of forest energy, biodiversity impacts connected to several renewable energy sources, and eutrophication caused by utilisation of agricultural energy sources. There are currently no reliable and generally accepted methods to estimate the biodiversity impacts of renewable energy production, thus, this topic would require further studies. The climate change impacts of forest based energy sources are relatively well studied, but the results of these studies are highly variable because of different assumptions on spatial and time scale. A qualitative impact assessment framework, as described in this paper, can be used to assess the environmental impacts of renewable energy production and is a potential option to attain information on the renewable energy impacts as long as reliable and comparable quantitative datasets are not available. These kinds of qualitative assessments can also be applied to detect the areas that need further studies.
AB - The EU is aiming to increase the utilisation of renewable energy to 20% of the total energy consumption by 2020. For Finland, the target is 38%. Renewable energy sources are assumed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions when compared to fossil fuels. Yet not all environmental impacts of renewable energy use are thoroughly assessed, and there are no comprehensive assessments on the impacts and risks of renewable energy production that would take into account all possible environmental impacts. We applied qualitative expert knowledge to attain information on the impacts and risks of renewable energy in Finland. According to the expert panel, the overall impacts of renewable energy by 2020 are not significant. However, we found some hot spot areas, i.e. areas of the most concern related to particulate matter formation during regional wood combustion, climate impacts of forest energy, biodiversity impacts connected to several renewable energy sources, and eutrophication caused by utilisation of agricultural energy sources. There are currently no reliable and generally accepted methods to estimate the biodiversity impacts of renewable energy production, thus, this topic would require further studies. The climate change impacts of forest based energy sources are relatively well studied, but the results of these studies are highly variable because of different assumptions on spatial and time scale. A qualitative impact assessment framework, as described in this paper, can be used to assess the environmental impacts of renewable energy production and is a potential option to attain information on the renewable energy impacts as long as reliable and comparable quantitative datasets are not available. These kinds of qualitative assessments can also be applied to detect the areas that need further studies.
KW - Energy scenarios
KW - Environmental impacts
KW - Expert knowledge
KW - Qualitative
KW - Renewable energy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85033438950&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.rser.2017.05.146
DO - 10.1016/j.rser.2017.05.146
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85033438950
SN - 1364-0321
VL - 82
SP - 1433
EP - 1441
JO - Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
JF - Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
ER -
