Impacts of renewable energies on biodiversity
The ADEME (the Ecological Transition Agency) has just published the deliverables of a study entitled, “State of the art of the impacts of renewable energies on biodiversity, soils and landscapes, and the means of assessing those impacts”, produced by Biotope and Deloitte Développement Durable.
Renewable energies are at the core of energy transition and their development is considered as an essential element for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and therefore the fight against climate change. However, like all development, renewable energy production installations my well cause environmental impacts, particularly on biodiversity, soils and landscapes.
This bibliographic study looks at all the renewable energy production sectors (solar, wind power, hydroelectricity, marine energy, and geothermal energy), with the exception of biomass and concentrating solar power. It also addresses the aspects of energy transport and storage.
This study has a number of objectives:
- To provide a panorama of current knowledge on the impacts of renewable energies on biodiversity, soils and landscapes throughout their life-cycle, drawing on national and international publications and studies;
- For the documented impacts, to create a synthesis of their main characteristics and the methods that do or do not exist for their assessment;
- To highlight the indicators that enable an assessment of the impacts on biodiversity, soils and landscapes of a renewable energy production installation;
- To identify the themes which require development and/or deepening of knowledge and/or methods, in order to give direction to the work to be commenced following the study.
This study thus appears as a first stage in identifying the future work to carry out concerning the impacts of renewable energies on biodiversity, soils and landscapes, based on an existing bibliography and the expertise of numerous stakeholders in the subject.
You will find free access on the ADEME site to all the documents related to this study: https://www.ademe.fr/etat-lart-impacts-energies-renouvelables-biodiversite-sols-paysages-moyens-devaluation-impacts
