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Project Summary Project Description Application of Tools Opinion of Tools Decision making process Contact Details

Application of tools

Name of the case study
Middelgrunden offshore windfarm


Name of tool
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), supported by WindPro

Description of tool - character
An environmental impact assessment has been carried out, following the Danish guidelines for EIA of offshore Wind Farms. EIA is a generic tool, the guidelines try to specify the use of the tool in relation to the specific problem: off shore Wind Farm.

Description of tool - availability
c.) Available for free in the generic form (EIA) Paid for software package (WindPro) http://www.emd.dk/WindPRO/Price%20List/

Description of tool - existing
EIA is a generic tool.

Description of tool - adaptation
Much attention has been paid to the visual impact of the wind farm. In the first proposal, the wind farm consisted of 27 turbines, placed in a 3 x 9 matrix. This proposal was rejected in the first audit in 1997, due to the (imagined) negative visual impact. In the public debate the argument was that the wind farm would cover most of horizon. The thought of 111 m tall turbines was scaring to some people – apparently they had difficulties in getting a realistic image of what the farm would look like from the distance.

Afterwards a number of alternative layouts of the wind farm were visualized with WindPro. WinPro is a tool developed by the Danish company EMD International A/S especially to visualize wind farms, the tool is described on http://www.emd.dk. WindPro gives a very realistic image of the visual impact, the 111 m tall turbines does not seem large from 2 kilometres distance.


What tools were used to assess sustainability?

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), supported by WindPro

More information

Click here for a full description (pdf)