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Assessment of Environmental and Ecological Impacts

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The Kuroshio Power Plant

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Energy ((LNEN,volume 15))

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Abstract

The installation of Kuroshio power plant entails the sudden appearance of hundreds of 50 m-wide power generating turbines anchored to relay platforms covering an area measured in square kilometers which, in turn, are anchored to the seabed by hundreds of cables, each several hundred meters in length. These installations are sure to have considerable anticipated and unanticipated impacts on local hydrological, ecological, and environmental conditions. On the other hand, natural disasters and climate changes may cause operational difficulties or damage the ability of the power plant to provide a steady source of power. These two types of impact, the impacts from and on the power plant, can be broken down into four categories (1) the impact of power plant operation on the Kuroshio motion, (2) the environmental impact due to power plant construction and operation, (3) the ecological impact due to power plant construction and operation, and (4) the impact of natural disasters and climate changes on power plant operation. All these issues must be carefully evaluated before construction is commenced, and will be discussed in details in this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Applied Mechanics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China (ROC)

    Falin Chen

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Chen, F. (2013). Assessment of Environmental and Ecological Impacts. In: The Kuroshio Power Plant. Lecture Notes in Energy, vol 15. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00822-6_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00822-6_5

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-00821-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-00822-6

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