Improving Decision-Making for the Energy Transition: Guidance for Using Strategic Environmental Assessment
Chapter 13 focuses on the infrastructure and supply chains required for renewable energy development. The chapter discusses the types of infrastructure associated with renewable energy such as transmission lines and power grids, storage facilities needed to balance electricity supply and demand, and the importance of ports and harbors in facilitating the export and import of renewable energy products like green hydrogen and ammonia.
SEA helps assess the environmental and socio-economic risks and potential impacts of developing such infrastructure. These include land use changes, ecosystem changes, habitat and biodiversity loss, community displacement, and health and safety concerns. Additionally, the chapter highlights the environmental and socio-economic impacts of supply chains for renewable energy technologies, including the extraction of critical minerals and the importance of adopting circular economy principles to minimize waste and promote sustainability.
Renewable energy generation and delivery requires associated infrastructure
Infrastructure is a key part of making renewable energy work. Things like transmission lines, sub-stations, roads, and energy storage systems help move and manage electricity from sources like wind, solar, and bioenergy. The development of such infrastructure can have big impacts on the environment and local communities, including taking up land, cutting down forests, and sometimes forcing people to move.
Transmission lines and roads
Transmission lines are needed to connect renewable energy projects to the power grid. They come in different types and can cause issues like soil erosion, cutting through forests, destroying habitats, and disturbing wildlife. Sub-stations, which help control the flow of electricity, can take up large amounts of land and affect nearby ecosystems. Roads, often built to bring in equipment and workers, can also damage sensitive areas, especially if they go through forests or protected land.
Energy storage
Energy storage systems, like large batteries or pumped water systems, are important for storing extra energy when more is produced than is needed, and releasing it when demand is higher. These systems help balance the electricity supply, but they also have environmental challenges, like mining materials for batteries, which can harm the environment, and is sometimes associated with violations of human rights in communities. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) helps ensure these policies, plans, and programs (PPPs) recognize and require that these systems must be built responsibly.
Ports and harbors
Ports and harbors are also important as renewable energy products like green hydrogen and ammonia are shipped worldwide. These facilities can cause pollution and harm marine life during both construction and operation. They provide work opportunities but are also associated with the influx of construction workers which can create conflicts with local communities. SEA helps make sure that PPPs recognize and require that the benefits of these ports are balanced with efforts to avoid, reduce and mitigate their environmental and social impacts.
Supply chains
The supply chains for renewable energy equipment, such as wind turbines and solar panels, rely on materials like lithium, cobalt, and copper. Mining these materials can damage the environment and lead to poor working conditions. By applying circular economy principles—recycling and reusing materials— both the need for more mining and the impacts on the planet and people can be reduced. SEA supports these sustainable practices to make the transition to clean energy as responsible as possible.
How can SEA help in the infrastructure needed for the energy transition?
SEA helps ensure that PPPs related to renewable energy development and delivery account for potential environmental and socio-economic risks, as well as the impacts of the necessary infrastructure. It also ensures that measures are put in place to avoid or reduce any negative effects.