Romancing the Turbine

Abstract

Renewable power sources are becoming more important to the future of our electric power production systems. Both in order to meet our increasing power needs, and replace our decreasing oil supplies. Renewable power is also becoming more main stream because of the realisation of the extent of climate change, and the desire to mitigate its effects. Various renewable technologies are being tested and installed all over the world, including New Zealand. These installations usually now have more to do with helping reduce climate change, and meet the expectations of environmental treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol, rather than decrease oil use. Unfortunately in the rush to get these projects up and running there has been no comprehensive review of the threats these machines pose to the natural environment.

This thesis is structured into two parts. The first examines six different types of renewable power production (wind, water, geothermal, solar, biomass, and hydrogen) to determine their impact on the environment. While the environmental effects are the focus, this thesis also mentions weather and structural problems. While this thesis has no experimental component it does give a through overview of the current literature available on the subject and highlights gaps that need to be filled. The second part of this thesis is a book, produced for a commercial audience that takes a look not only at renewable power (transforming academic information for a public audience), but at a whole range of issues relating to the sustainability industry.

It was found that while each type of power had their own set of individual problems there was one overall similarity. The major impact of renewable lies in its size. Large, centralised power grids do not suit the way in which renewable resources produce power. These large scale plants or farms also draw negative public perceptions. In order to mitigate these effects this thesis recommends that renewable power not only be installed in smaller, local grid systems, but also that a greater amount of knowledge is available to the public. This will involve doing more research into the area of environmental impacts generated by renewable power, as there are still several blank areas in the literature.