Environmental Safety and Sustainability of Wind Energy Projects at Remote Territories of Arctic Region

Development of the Arctic zone is leading to increasing demand for up-to-date and sustainable energy supply systems. Modernization of energy-supply grids, local energy generating infrastructure, and expanding the usage of renewable sources of energy, are responding to the modern trends. Wind power plays an important role in the development of energy supply systems in remote territories, and the increasing number of wind power farms will have an increasing impact on the environment. SafeWind project’s objective is to address the abovementioned trends by finding cross-border, common approaches for minimising wind farms’ negative environmental impact in the future. The project will develop recommendations on optimizing Environmental Impact Assessment requirements for wind power generation and distribution at remote and hard-to-reach territories along the international transport corridors Northern Axis, Barents Link and further along the Northern Sea Route. The project is aiming at mutual learning and unification of the requirements and approaches to the EIA process in the participating regions in Norway, the European Union and Russia, where preliminary EIAs will be carried out. By comparative analysis of the assessment processes, the project will compile and promote a jointly developed list of common requirements for the wind power farm EIA in both on-shore and off-shore areas of the Barents/Euro-Arctic region. The project works in close cooperation with Kolarctic Project Northern Axis – Barents Link (NABL KO4159)