Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Renewable energy

Avoid constructing wind farms on peat

A Clarification to this article was published on 27 February 2013

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jo Smith.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Smith, J., Nayak, D. & Smith, P. Avoid constructing wind farms on peat. Nature 489, 33 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/489033d

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/489033d

This article is cited by

Comments

Commenting on this article is now closed.

  1. On behalf of Jo Smith:

    Construction of windfarms on degraded peats can save carbon

    The headline linked to our correspondence on 6th September (2012), "Avoid constructing windfarms on peat", has resulted in misunderstanding of the intended message. With good management, our calculations1 show that carbon savings are possible for windfarms constructed on many peat sites; it is developments on non-degraded peats that should be avoided. After 2025, assuming low-carbon electricity generation, windfarms on non-degraded peats are unlikely to give net carbon benefit and technological advances would be needed to achieve savings.

    The Scottish Government's Carbon-Calculator2 assesses carbon losses at any given site. It is widely used by the industry to determine how to manage a site for maximum carbon benefit; the Scottish Government are leading the way by including this in planning applications for windfarms over 50MW. Carbon-payback-time is calculated by comparing these losses to savings made by replacing fossil fuels. As electricity generation becomes decarbonised, savings will fall because wind replaces less carbon-intense electricity generation. The calculations provided by the Carbon-Calculator should account for this fall in savings by using the emission factor for replaced energy production, averaged over the windfarm life. Calculations using emission factors at time of consent underestimate carbon-payback-time by a factor of 0.6 in 2010, falling to 0.4 by 2030. Predictions of fuel-mix used for electricity generation are uncertain, but errors introduced by not using reduced emission factors are likely to be greater than this uncertainty.

    If consent for windfarms on non-degraded peats is not given, some suggest there will be reduced decarbonisation. We assert that windfarms constructed on non-degraded peats contribute apparent, but not actual decarbonisation. It is likely that other developments will replace development on non-degraded peats, so genuinely counteracting any reductions. Onshore windfarms have great potential to reduce carbon emissions from electricity generation, but this will only be true if developments on non-degraded peats are avoided.

    Jo Smith, Dali Nayak, Pete Smith

    1Nayak, D.R., Miller, D., Nolan, A., Smith, P., Smith, J.U., 2010. Calculating carbon budgets of windfarms on Scottish peatlands. Mires & Peat 4, Article 09, http://www.mires-and-peat.net/, ISSN 1819-754X

    2The Scottish Government, 2012. Wind farm savings on peatlands. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/... (accessed 22/05/12).

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing