PowerPlant – a reboot

Last year, Europe experienced its warmest year on record. According to the 2023 European State of the Climate (ESOTC) report by Copernicus ECMWF , Europe is the fastest warming continent with temperatures rising at around twice the global average rate. The continent witnessed the largest wildfire ever recorded, one of the wettest years, severe marine heatwaves and widespread devastating flooding.

Climate change is the main driver of biodiversity loss, adding fuel to the fire of intensive farming, urban sprawl and pollution which has already degraded over 80% of habitats in the European Union.

As the EU aims to restore degraded ecosystems and cut emissions by at least 55% compared to 1990 by 2030, the power sector can play a pivotal role in tackling biodiversity loss and climate change at the same time. But how?

We are powering the way with #PowerPlant.

Power Plant: breaking the cycle of degradation

Climate change cannot be addressed without building the right renewable energy capacity. However, it can take up to eight years to get the permit to build new installations, and this is also partly due to local biodiversity-related issues. This is partly at odds with biodiversity objectives, as electrification, supported by a massive rollout of renewables, not only can tackle climate change but it can also help stop and even regenerate biodiversity.

In 2022, we teamed up with award-winning architecture and design firm EFFEKT to see what such an integrated project would look like in our Power Plant report. To tackle the climate and nature challenge simultaneously, we need to define a new model for renewable energy source (RES) deployment, with integrated RES projects that contribute to regenerating nature and optimising the benefit to society and the economy, in a spirit of collaboration and community ownership.

The power sector already offers notable examples of such projects, but they often go unnoticed: that’s why the report also included several cases studies.

Let’s have a look at some of them.

A puffins’ paradise on the Isle of May

SSE Renewables has made sure that its wind farm on the Isle of May can support the proliferation of its tuxedoed inhabitants – puffins. ?

By installing four cameras and with the help of artificial intelligence, SSE Renewables managed to accurately monitor local puffin colonies as part of planning conditions for its Beatrice offshore wind farm.

The footage collected by the cameras served to automatically detect and count the birds during their breeding season, with an AI powered technology that has learned not to count the same puffin twice in the field of view.

This system contributes to valuable scientific data on the status of puffin populations on Scotland’s east coast, providing important information to SSE’s consenting and conservation stakeholders such as NatureScot and Marine Scotland Science .

In December 2022, SSE Renewables and its partners won the Scottish Green Energy Award for Innovation for the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) when monitoring species.

Restoring habitats in Bavaria

In the Bavarian city of T?ging, along the nearly 23 km long Inn River canal, lays the T?ging-Jettenbach run-of-river hydropower plant, another remarkable example of how integrated projects can go hand in hand with nature conservation and restoration.

Verbund built a new run-of-river hydropower plant including adaptations and new constructions of water intakes and weirs.

The results were impressive. On one hand, the hydropower plant’s generation increased by approximately 120 GWh – enough to power about 200,000 households with renewable, local electricity and will avoid 514,000 tons of CO2 annually.

On the other hand, thanks to the holistic implementation of aquatic and terrestrial measures, it also improved flood protection measures and it implemented compensation and mitigation measures to improve the total ecological value of the river stretch.

Such measures included gravel bars and standing waters as new spawning grounds and fish habitats, a new downstream fish migration possibility (the so-called “hydroelectric snail”), the development of meadows on the banks to foster biodiversity, the creation of 20 hectares of new grasslands and wetlands.

This was possible thanks to the Environmental Impact Assessment that had to be conducted in cooperation with local citizens and NGOs, which were invited to participate in every stage of the process through public consultations.

A new Power Plant 2.0A new Power Plant 2.0

Two years after the launch of PowerPlant, Eurelectric partnered with 科进 . This time, we aimed at providing a guidebook for developers to design RES projects in harmony with nature. It will help industry understand their impact and set robust actions to accelerate a renewables and grids build out that protects the environment.

?But we can’t spill too much more on it today…

You will be able to have a sneak peek at it on day 2 of Power Summit 2024 , during the Power Talk “Power Plant II – How to do the energy transition big and fast enough in harmony with nature?”. The session will also have a keynote by Greece’s Deputy Minister for Energy & the Environment Alexandra Sdoukou and a panel discussion on the enabling factors for a nature positive energy transition.

Still curious?

Then make sure you will be in Brussels on 13 June for the launch event of Power Plant 2.0!

This week's edition written by:

Chiara Carminucci , Digital Communications Officer - Eurelectric

With technical input by:

Aida García ,Advisor - Renewables - 2030 Framework Lead - Eurelectric

Nicholas A. Steinwand , Policy Communications Advisor - Eurelectric