Environmental impact and pollution-related challenges of renewable wind energy paradigm - A review

Sci Total Environ. 2019 Sep 15:683:436-444. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.274. Epub 2019 May 21.

Abstract

With ever increasing environmental and socio-economic awareness, government and legislative authorities, around the globe, are concerned and considering the pollution-related challenges and parameters that influence the energy paradigm. Therefore, renewable energy resources, for instance, wind, solar, and hydro- are used to generate electricity to reduce fossil-fuel-related environmental concerns. The world needs swift, equitable, significant, and effective climate action on this stage. The scientific evidence has been mounting for decades to employ renewable energy resources. One of these shared resources is wind energy, which currently appears as an emerging source of energy around the world. Electricity production using wind power schemes could be an essential replacement for conventional fossil-based fuel resources by using different modalities. Although the initial cost of installing a photovoltaic system is relatively high, however, the running cost is very low. Herein, we reviewed the environmental impact and considerable challenges of the technological paradigm for the development of wind energy technology with particular reference to Pakistan's future perspective. It is anticipated that the discussion provided can stimulate a negotiation between decision makers and raise attentiveness of environmental characteristics and a set of challenges related to the wind power industry development of Pakistan.

Keywords: Challenges; Environmental impact; Fossil-fuel; Pollution; Renewable energy; Wind power.

Publication types

  • Review