Vindkraftverkens effekter på ekosystemtjänster : En fallstudie av Piteå Kommuns vindkraftsetablering

Sammanfattning

In the pursuit of renewable energy, wind turbines are used to achieve global and national environmental goals. The establishment of this power production has escalated in Sweden, with the aim of phasing out the use of fossil fuels. The electricity generated may be classified as clean, but the infrastructure not only causes landscape changes, but also threatens ecosystems and their services that contribute to human well-being. The effects on ecosystem services are cross-border, and therefore require cooperation at different institutional scales. This study examines documents at national, regional, and local level to map the existing knowledge about wind power's effects on ecosystem services, and how ecosystem services are expressed in planning. A certain common delineation of the effects can be deduced between the different levels of cultural and supporting services. Planning for wind power at the local level has been shown in Piteå municipality to include a few of the ecosystem services that have been defined. However, there is a lack of an in-depth connection between the affected areas, and any ecosystem services these areas can provide.