Environmental Impact Assessment For The Proposed

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

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Environmental Impact Assessment for the proposed:

DONGOLA WIND FARM

Written by: Mohammed Wardy

ID: 082513007

Department: Sustainability Engineering

Submission Date: 15 March 2013

Word count: 2100 (Excluding tables, contents and references)

Contents

Images

Figure 1: Location from the Dongola ……………………………………………………………………………………..………….5

Figure 2: Satellite Image showing location geographic…………………………………………………………….………..5

Figure 3: Site in windy location………………………………………………………………………………………………………....6

Tables

Table 1: Operating Data and Components………………………………………………………………….……………………..4

Table 2: Scoping analysis……………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………..8

Table 3: Baseline scenario……………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………10

Table 4: CO2 reduction over 10 years………………………………………………………………………………………..…….11

Table 5: Barriers………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………15

1.0 Introduction

Sudan has an area stretching around 2.5 million square Km, laying between 4 and 22 North latitude, mostly a flat plain surface with a few mountains with deserts covering over 50% of the country. Environmental Impact Assessment started in the 1980s in many developing countries in Africa, and a major role of transferring the EIA applications was engaged by the United Nations and other international agencies. It is worth noting that EIA became a legal requirement in 2001, however assessing a region with essentially no environmental data has proven to be challenging, furthermore Sudan itself has not made EIA legislatively mandatory. [1][2]

Since the EIA methodology reflects its quality and the absence of Sudanese EIA guidance is evident, many projects that are carried out in the country may choose to ignore or overlook many aspects & the importance of an Environmental Impact Assessment. With many energy projects being funded, sponsored and implemented by overseas donors, it is those donors who also supervise &implement the EIAs for their projects. [5]

1.1 Project description

This project is the "first of its kind" in the country as currently 79% of the electricity generated is produced by the Merowe Dam and Hydro plant and approximately 21% is from fossil fuels. This project will undergo a two phase integrated constructions; first 20MW of wind power will be installed and connected to the grid. After high voltage transmission lines get installed the remaining 80MW wind capacity farm will be installed and integrated into the grid. The wind farm will consist of 67 turbines with a unit capacity of 1.5MW each, this will approximately generate over 300,917MWh annually. Wind farms come with a load factor of around 34%. The area required for the project is approximately 5,000m2. [4]

Table 1: Operating Data and Components

Operating Data

Rated Power

1.5MW

Cut in wind speed

3m/s

Cut out wind speed

22m/s

Rotor

Rotor

82m

Swept Area

5,000m2

Speed

9-17 rpm

Tip speed

39-75 m/s

Over speed control

Pitch angle

Gearbox

Construction

N/A, Gearless turbine technology

Generator

Construction

Permanent Magnet Direct Driving (PMD)

Cooling system

Air-cooling in tower base

Voltage

620V

Grind frequency

50/60Hz

Control

Control centre

PLC controlled

Grid connection

Via IGBT converter

Distance Control

Remote Controlled surveillance system

Brake System

Main brake

Pitch angle

Secondary brake

Disk brake

Lightning protection

 A form of grounding the towers and turbines to avoid lighting damage to equipment

Tower

Construction

Tubular Steel tower

Rotor Hub height

70m

1.2 Reason for Project

The purpose of the wind farm is to implement a green energy supply to the region and contribute a more diverse energy mix into the country. With an ever increasing growth in the country's economy, this in turn reflects on the need for more electricity. Other reasons include:

The project will generate employment

Pave the way for new/expansion of wind power projects in the country

Generate knowledge and know-how in the wind power sector

Provide a reliable source of energy in the northern region

1.3 Location of Project

The farm will be located 6.5km away from Dongola airport. Dongola is the capital for the northern state "Asch-Schamaliya" and it lies in the Sahara region between the Libyan Desert and the Nubian Desert on the western side of the River Nile. 1km from the planned wind farm a new 220kV double circuit power line will also be constructed that will allow the wind farm to be connected to the national grid. The geographical coordinates are as follows:

Coordinates: Latitude: 19°10’ N / Longitude: 30°29’ E

Altitude: 250 m above sea level.

Figure 1: Location rom the Dongola

Figure 2: Satellite Image showing location geographic

Figure 3: Site in windy location

1.4 Project Development

The project does not have public funding; therefore the investor or bidder is likely to view the project through a financial structure with market driven terms and conditions. Training of staff will be implemented by the project developers who will be in charge of the operations. This will in turn transfer knowledge and know-how of the plant operation ad minor maintenance. The project equipment and components are listed below:

Wind turbine with foundation

33/220kV substation

8km 220kV transmission line for grid-connection

Installation and commissioning

Civil work required such as access roads and buildings

Temporary construction compound

Wind monitoring equipment

1.5 Schedule of the Project

The construction of the project will take 24 months; this includes wind turbine’s towers, foundations, transformer stations and cabling. Operating continuously under the climate conditions in the area, the turbines have a technical lifetime of around 20 years. The project will be operated and developed by the Ministry of Electricity & Dams (MED). The wind farm turbines will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with winds of variable speeds from 3-22m/s. Maintenance and regular checks will be done on the wind farm to ensure quality and consistency of power delivered.

1.6 Environmental Impact Assessment Scope

There are many scoping methods that can be used to measure the effect on the environmental parameter of the construction, operation and decommissioning of the project. The aim of the scope is to carry a preliminary study on all the environmental parameters and to identify the key issues at an early stage for the proposed location of the wind farm project. [7]

Methods of scoping include:

ISO 14001

Checklist

Computer modelling of systems

Networking

Matrices

The method used in this report is the matrices technique. The matrix identifies the interaction between different project actions, environmental parameters that can be affected by these actions and to what extent. It includes environmental parameters as well as social impacts against various project actions. Depending on the scale of possible impact, each cell is numbered in range of 1-10 (10 representing the greatest possible impact and 1 the least). The impacts are also given a + or – to indicate a positive or negative impact on the environment. The matrix for this project is shown below:

Project actions

Environmental parameter

Surveying

Access Road to Site

Construction

Operation

Decommissioning

Earth

Geology

N/A

-/3

-/4

N/A

+/2

Soil

N/A

-/2

-/5

N/A

+/2

Water quality

Ground water

N/A

-/1

-/1

N/A

N/A

Surface water

N/A

N/A

-/1

N/A

N/A

Air

GHG emissions

N/A

-/1

-/3

+/10

-/5

Air quality

N/A

N/A

-/4

+/8

-/5

Wildlife

Wildlife

N/A

-/1

-/1

N/A

+/2

Wildlife Habitat

N/A

-/2

-/1

N/A

+/2

Wildlife species at risk

N/A

-/2

-/2

N/A

N/A

Vegetation

Introduction of non-native and invasive species

N/A

-/1

-/1

N/A

-/1

Rare plants

N/A

-/2

-/1

N/A

N/A

Rare plant species at risk

N/A

-/1

-/1

N/A

N/A

Land use

Development and future land use

N/A

+/4

+/5

N/A

0

Non-renewable resource use

N/A

-/3

-/4

N/A

-/5

Renewable resource use

N/A

N/A

+/7

+/8

N/A

Heritage sites

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Infrastructure and services

N/A

+/5

+/5

+/5

-/6

Employment

Job availability

+/4

+/5

+/5

+/5

+/5

Economy

National economy

+/4

+/3

+/3

+/3

+/3

Local economy

+/4

+/3

+/3

+/3

+/3

Table2: Scoping analysis

2.0 Baseline & Gaps in Data

As this project is a "first-of-its-kind" in the country, designated in an uninhabited area, there is a lack of available data and thus causing a major gap for a baseline. For many developing countries, many areas and regions that are uninhabited have no real significance to the governments and even the people of the country, rather how they can put this land to use. In the case of the "Dongola Wind farm" project, it is viewed that more benefit would come from the project for the government and its people, to provide clean green energy to a region that is not connected to the grid and also provide employment. [5]

Taking this into account the baseline for this project will be the approved baseline and monitoring methodology ACM002 version 13.00. The baseline is defined below:

"Electricity delivered to the grid by the project activity would have otherwise been generated by the operation of grid-connected power plants and/ or by the addition of new generation sources using fossil fuels". [4]

In other words, the country needs to generate electricity to keep up with its increasing economy and population; therefore it is essential to deliver electricity to the grid to increase the countries net supply. An alternative method that generates electricity would be a thermal power plant and thus generate more CO2. [4]

2.1 Example for Baseline Data

Considering the uninhabited location for the wind farm project, the region is dry desert and thus no major issues will arise from placing the wind farm in that region that can affect the ecology or landscape in a negative way. Therefore, considering this project as a way to reduce the countries CO2 emissions, table 2 shows the main environmental impact that could arise from various "alternative" projects. [4]

Table 3: Baseline scenario

Source

GHGS

Included

Justification/Explanation

Baseline scenario

CO2 emissions from electricity generated in fossil fuel fired power plants

CO2

yes

Main emission source

CH4

no

minor

N2O

no

minor

Alternative 1

Geothermal power plant, CO2 emissions required to operate the plant

CO2

no

 Does not apply as the project is a wind farm

CH4

no

N2O

no

Alternative 2

Hydropower plant, CH4 emissions from the reservoir

CO2

no

Does not apply as the project is a wind farm

CH4

no

N2O

no

Project

Wind farm

CO2

no

The project is a wind farm, therefore emissions are not applicable for this activity

CH4

no

N2O

no

2.3 Environmental impact

After assessing impacts of the project activity on the environment, it was found that the effects of the construction and operation of the wind farm are seen as positive, furthermore it is unlikely that the wind farm will be decommissioned after its expiry date rather turbines will probably be updated. A wide variety of positive social, economic and environmental impacts have been identified. [5] They are listed below:

Employment prospects

Knowledge transfer through training of site employees in installation, operation and maintenance of wind turbines

Enhanced living standards

Increases in the national and regional economy

Growth in electricity amount

Decrease of pollution from thermal power generation

The main negative impacts which have been acknowledged are listed below:

Noise pollution

Dust generation

Soil erosion

Oil spills

Solid waste generation

Traffic impact

Occupational hazards

2.4 Prediction of the Impact

Since there is no environmental effect on the ecology and landscape of the uninhabited area for installing and operating the wind farm, rather a gain to the national grid through a renewable source of energy, given the emission factor for grid connected power is 0.305 t CO2/KWh and the wind farm generates 300,917Mwh, the reduction in CO2 is calculated to be 91,780 tCO2e annually. [4]

Table 4: CO2 reduction over 10 years

Year

Baseline emissions

(t Co2e)

Project emissions

(t Co2e)

Emission Reduction

(t Co2e)

2014

91,780

0

91,780

2015

91,780

0

91,780

2016

91,780

0

91,780

2017

91,780

0

91,780

2018

91,780

0

91,780

2019

91,780

0

91,780

2020

91,780

0

91,780

2021

91,780

0

91,780

2022

91,780

0

91,780

2023

91,780

0

91,780

Period of Operation

10 years

Total

917,800

0

917,800

2.5 Mitigation Measures for the Project

As this project is a green electricity generation from wind power, there are only minor measures that need to be taken into account to prevent any environmental impacts this project may produce. Below are a few recommendations that should be implemented:

Covering truck loads with soil material

Prevention of dust emissions by watering earth during work under dry, warm and windy weather conditions

Prevention of water quality impact by utilising mined material as fill material

Prevention of oil spills by the use of machinery operation and maintenance as well as vehicle maintenance under proper and regular actions. Emergency procedures shall be foreseen on site.

Noise disturbance prevention by construction execution only in the day time

Discarding solid waste materials from wind turbine installation at permitted dumpsites

Setting up of warning signs and accompany vehicles to avoid traffic impact and hazards

Consideration of proper health and safety measures in agreement with relevant rules and regulation

Correct waste management during operation to avoid impacts on water and soil quality

Installing aircraft warning signs in order to prevent hazards from airport proximity

2.6 Laws and Legislations

Like many developing countries, many of the laws and legislations are not as advanced as the rest of the western world. With respect to CO2 emissions, the Ministry of Electricity & Dams (MED) are responsible for measuring and implementing an integrated method to reduce CO2 emissions in the country thus oversees this particular parameter of the environmental impact.[3] Other laws and legislations are listed below:

Constitutional Law:

Criminal Act, 1991

Anti-Terrorism Act 2003, Section 125

Sectorial Laws:

Labour Act, 1997

Environmental Health Act, 2009

Framework Umbrella Laws

Other important laws and regulation:

Standard and Methodology Act, 2008

Environment Protection Act, 2001

Bank of Sudan Act, 2002

Electricity Act, 2001

Investment Promotion Act, 1999

National Public Health Act, 2008

Injuries Labour Compensation Act, 1981

3.0 Consulted Agencies

The national legal framework in the country for protecting the environment is relatively weak, noting that there are more than 120 Sudanese environmental legislations covering a broad range from soil to pesticides, wildlife to water, with the authority spread over 30 government bodies; however no co-ordination has been implemented for a national environmental policy. This is a role for the Ministry of Environment & Physical development which is responsible for development taking place in the nation. The Higher Council for Environment & Natural Resources (HCENR) can approve or deny any environmental impact assessment carried out for any project in the country. [6]

3.1 Decision Making Process

With the absence of Sudanese Environmental Impact Assessment guidance, it is obvious that the EIA and its qualities are determined by; to a large degree on a strong institutional and legislative framework. It is therefore, apparent that a review is required for the Sudanese EIA framework with respect to its legislatives and institutions. [4]

There are three ranks of authority In the Sudanese federal system:

National level

State level

Locality level

With coexisting powers in the federal as well as the state bodies, each trying to exercise power on the environment, health, education, industry and tourism, many projects find conflict in implementations due to this. The Environmental Protection Act of 2001 made the HCENR a policy creating figure and sanctions it as the environmental protection agency for implementation & regulation settings. Founding a state environment & natural resources council is a slow process, as the development of federal and state environmental conservation strategies standards is managed. [4]

The general organised EIA process in Sudan is composed of submittal of the project brief comprising a preliminary environmental assessment then either the project is granted a permit or it is overruled. The next phase is the preparation of an Environmental Impact Assessment by the project developer and its submission to the Higher Council of Environment & Natural Resources for assessment and evaluation. After a review and final approval of the EIA by the HCENR, the project developer is given consent to construct the project. [4]

For the proposed Wind farm project many barriers have been identified that can affect the implementation of the project after the EIA becomes approved by the HCENR, below is a table highlighting these barriers.

Table 5: Barriers

Barriers

Barrier Description

First-of-its-kind

The Dongola Wind Power project is one of three wind power projects to be developed in the country; however no wind power technology has been implemented to generate electricity in Sudan. The activity of this project thus faces a barrier regarding the implementation and the operation of the wind farm. Furthermore, there are no trained national staffs available to implement and operate the wind farm meaning there is a high risk of equipment disrepair, equipment failure and general under performance of the wind power plant.

Technological

Many alternative technologies operate in the country and provide competition for with wind farm, in terms of their low risk conditions, lower installation costs and higher load factor. Compared to conventional methods of electricity generation like a thermal power plant, the Sudanese thermal base load capacity factor ranges between 88-93% compared to the 34% wind power load factor.

Prevailing practice

As stated above this project is the "first of its kind" in the country, with lack of knowledge in the nation regarding wind power energy. With the need for expansion of electricity generation, the same amount of electricity produced by the wind power plant can probably be provided by a thermal power plant. With the country generating 21% of its electricity from thermal power plants, sufficient knowledge exists in the country to implement a thermal power plant instead, however this will result in the generation of greenhouse gas emissions.

Infrastructure

Sites with favourable wind conditions are generally chosen for wind farm projects, this however results in a frequent infrastructure problems eg access to site via suitable roads. Roads have to be appropriate for Heavy Load Vehicles and are able to allow transportation of cranes, blades, towers etc. Compared to the above barriers, infrastructure barrier is less relevant as roads will inevitably be required in the future.

Market

Wind farm projects are generally considered risky investment, with Sudan categorised by the United Nations as one of the Least

Developing Countries (LDC) business investments in the country face a major risk. Considering the project developer, the Ministry of Electricity & Dams which are a public entity, they are urging and encouraging local, private and even foreign investors to get involved in the construction and operation of the project.

Currency

Primarily the Wind energy industry is exposed to a large degree to currency risk due to fluctuation in the market, as this sector provides a domestic good for the market, the market is independent to hard currencies. Due to the lack of Sudanese wind turbine manufactures, wind turbines are likely to be bought in US dollars (USD), whereas the local currency is the Sudanese Pound (SDG). [5]

Country related

Currently Sudan ranks as one the countries with the worst governments' in terms of security status, corruption as well as a lack of political stability. The country suffers from religious, ethnic and economic conflicts that compromise the local safety situation, discouraging any outside investors for the project. The country is also ranked 177 out of 182 countries indicating high corruption & bribery.