Single multi-variable KPI

WENDY emphasises the importance of considering more than just the social-technical aspects of energy citizenship, towards energy stewardship from the integrated perspective of social-technical-ecological systems (STES). The project monitors and ranks potential influencing factors, both positive and negative, that affect the social and natural environment. These factors are categorized into three main groups: social, economic, and environmental. These inputs are used to create new models and references.

The single multi-variable KPI (SMV-KPI) is a comprehensive assessment tool developed within the WENDY project to evaluate wind farm projects based on three critical dimensions: social, environmental, and techno-economic impacts. This holistic approach ensures that the overall well-being of a wind farm is captured in a single, adaptable metric.

 

Key features

• Integrated evaluation: Combines social acceptance, environmental impact, and economic viability into a single performance index.

• Rapid assessment: Utilizes open-access data, allowing for quick evaluations with minimal inputs (e.g., turbine specifications, location).

• Flexible weighting: Customisable weights for each score, enabling adaptation to different regional priorities and project goals.

 

Core components

1. Social score (S): Evaluates the community acceptance of a wind farm based on multiple factors, including visual impact, tourism effects, noise, economic benefits, and biodiversity protection.

Key components include:

• Visual acceptance: Assesses the visual impact of turbines on the landscape, considering factors like distance to the nearest town and the height of turbines.

• Tourism acceptance: Evaluates potential disruptions to local tourism, based on proximity to key tourist attractions.

• Noise acceptance: Accounts for sound levels and their potential disturbance to local residents, including cumulative impacts from multiple turbines.

• Project acceptance: Considers economic benefits and the extent to which local communities support the project.

• Nature activities protection: Measures the potential impact on local nature-based activities such as fishing, farming, or recreation.

• Biodiversity protection: Quantifies the risk to local wildlife, including birds and bats for onshore projects, and marine mammals for offshore sites.

 

Data used: Technical Specifications, Geographical information (using OpenStreetMap), Demography (using Eurostat), Biodiversity (using BiodiversityMapping)

Example of the query to identify populated places in Overpass Turbo

 

2. Environmental score (E): Measures the impact of a wind farm on local biodiversity, relying on life-cycle assessments and species distribution models and uses normalized potential disappeared fraction (PDF) values to represent the overall environmental impact.

Key components include:

• Habitat loss: Evaluates the direct footprint of turbines and associated infrastructure on natural habitats.

• Disturbance: Considers the disruption caused by construction, operation, and maintenance activities.

• Collision risks: Assesses the potential for bird and bat mortality due to turbine blades.

• Barrier effects: Accounts for the interruption of natural movement pathways for wildlife.

 

Example of the distribution map and occurrences for Gyps fulvus

 

 

3. Techno-economic score (T): Focuses on the financial viability of a wind installation by calculating the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and provides a direct measure of the financial efficiency of a wind farm project.

Key components include:

• Annual energy production (AEP): Estimates energy output based on wind speed distributions and turbine characteristics.

• Capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX): Considers installation, maintenance, and operational costs, including site-specific variations.

• Social intervention costs: Includes expenses related to community engagement and other social acceptance measures.

Example of the LCOE map for a given wind turbine

 

Why use the SMV-KPI tool?

• Comprehensive impact analysis: Captures the full spectrum of wind farm impacts.

• Data-driven decisions: Leverages publicly available data for transparent and objective evaluations.

• Customizable for local contexts: Adapts to diverse project requirements, ensuring relevance across regions.

 

 

How it works

The SMV-KPI is calculated as a weighted geometric mean of these three scores, allowing for regional customization based on specific project needs. It provides a fast, initial assessment that can be refined with more detailed studies as required.

The KPI will run on a limited set of user inputs:

• The location of the wind turbines (WT)

• Technical specifications of the WF: Hub height of the WTs, rotor diameter, power curve, noise level

• The ownership model of the wind farm: corporate, social and hybrid

• Additional social interventions aimed at improving its social acceptance can be implemented as boolean variables

 

The tool will have two tabs. The first one will allow to select the location of the turbine. We can click on the map or fill the coordinates in the form. The WENDY symbol will mark the chosen location. In a blue polygon or circle we can see the location of the closest populated area, and with the camera symbol we can see the closest site of touristic interest. In the left form we must also select the ownership model (social, hybrid or corporate) and the wind turbine model.

 

First tab for the multi-variable KPI online tool

 

In the second tab, we can visualize the results. Before the calculations are made, we can adjust the weights that we give to each one of the three dimensions (social, environmental and techno-economic). We click on the button ‘COMPUTE’ and the final results are shown in the right.

Second tab for the multi-variable KPI online tool

Flowchart

Explore the tool by clicking here: Single multi-variable KPI

 

Additional Information

For additional information about the SMV-KPI tool:

 

-Please read the deliverable  

D4.3: Single multi-variable KPI

 

 

-Please watch the video below