@Article{TurkovskaCaKlNiReSoSc:2021:LaImBr,
               author = "Turkovska, Olga and Castro, Gabriel Malta and Klingler, Michael 
                         and Nitsch, Felix and Regner, Peter and Soterroni, Aline Cristina 
                         and Schmidt, Johannes",
          affiliation = "{University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences} and 
                         {Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)} and {University of 
                         Natural Resources and Life Sciences} and Institute of Engineering 
                         Thermodynamics, German Aerospace Center (DLR) and {University of 
                         Natural Resources and Life Sciences} and {Instituto Nacional de 
                         Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)} and {University of Natural Resources 
                         and Life Sciences}",
                title = "Land-use impacts of Brazilian wind power expansion",
              journal = "Environmental Research Letters",
                 year = "2021",
               volume = "16",
               number = "2",
                pages = "e02410",
                month = "Feb.",
             keywords = "wind power, land-use impacts, land-use and land cover change, 
                         Brazil.",
             abstract = "While wind power is a low-carbon renewable energy technology with 
                         relatively little land footprint, the necessary infrastructure 
                         expansion still has land-related environmental impacts. Brazil has 
                         seen more than a ten-fold increase in wind power capacity in the 
                         last decade. However, little is known about these impacts of wind 
                         power generation in Brazil compared to other world regions, 
                         although Brazilian wind power infrastructure is concentrated in 
                         the least protected ecosystems that are prone to degradation, 
                         desertification and species extinction. This study focuses on 
                         land-use impacts of past wind power generation development in four 
                         Brazilian federal states, covering 80% of the country's installed 
                         capacity. We assessed their spatial installation patterns, 
                         associated land-use and land cover change in the period before 
                         installation until 2018, and potential alternative installation 
                         locations, using a detailed wind turbine location database in 
                         combination with a high-resolution land-use and land cover map. In 
                         contrast to wind parks built in Europe, we found that 62% of the 
                         studied wind park area was covered by native vegetation and 
                         coastal sands. Overall, 3.2% of the total wind cluster area was 
                         converted from native vegetation to anthropogenic use. Wind parks 
                         installed mainly on native vegetation, on average, underwent 
                         higher land-use change compared to other wind parks. As Brazil 
                         intends to more than double its current wind power capacities by 
                         2029, we explored possibilities to reduce environmental risks due 
                         to wind power expansion. We showed that this is feasible by 
                         integrating wind parks into human-altered areas, as sufficient 
                         wind resources there are available.",
                  doi = "10.1088/1748-9326/abd12f",
                  url = "http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abd12f",
                 issn = "1748-9326",
             language = "en",
           targetfile = "Turkovska_2021_Environ._Res._Lett._16_024010.pdf",
        urlaccessdate = "20 maio 2024"
}