Flying Against The Wind

Love them or loathe them, few will dispute that wind turbines are an important source of emission and pollution-free power. But in early July, 2005, in California, an Alameda County judge allowed for the continuation of a lawsuit, brought about by environmentalists, including the Center for Biological Diversity , against nine wind turbine operators. The industry is being accused of using its mantle of green power as an excuse for ignoring the environmental harm it causes.

Anybody who has ever approached San Francisco from the east, will have driven past mile after mile of the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area . 5 000 wind turbines, covering 130 square kilometres, provide enough environmentally friendly power for 120 000 homes per year. What they might not know, however, is that it is estimated that between 1 700 and 4 700 birds, many of them protected raptors (including golden eagles and red-tailed hawks) are killed each year here, as they collide with and are chopped up by, the rotating blades.

The vast wind farms began construction in the early 1970s, on a major migratory corridor, where prey of squirrels, gophers and rabbits are abundant. It wasn't until the late 80's/early 90's that the magnitude of bird deaths was discovered.

Faced with the pending lawsuit, the operators have made plans to reduce bird mortality by 35% in 3 years. The plans include shutting down half of the turbines between mid November and February, removing 100 of the turbines proven to be the most deadly to birds and replacing a further 169 with 31 safer, modern turbines.

But the offer only gets the go ahead if the lawsuit is dropped.

So how bird unfriendly are wind turbines? And what lessons can we learn from Altamont when considering plans for future wind farms, both onshore and offshore?

While scientists studying bird activity at Denmark's 72-turbine offshore Nysted wind farm found that migrating ducks and geese were unlikely to be seriously affected and either flew around the farm or between the turbines, there is concern in the UK (which has the biggest offshore wind energy programme in the world) by some, as to the long term affects on birds of the cumulative impact of more and more wind farms and a precautionary approach has been advocated.

Particularly, a review by the CEBC (Centre for Evidence-Based Conservation) has recommended that wind farms not be built near populations of birds of conservation importance and, also, advocates building farms in deeper water, further from shore, so as to limit impacts on the waders and ducks on estuaries and shallow coastal waters.

Although statistics show that higher numbers of birds are killed by roads, communication towers, collision with buildings and by cats, than by wind turbines - and that, ultimately, global warming would be far more dangerous to bird species mortality - there are still significant numbers of birds killed at wind farms and the "green energy" label should not exempt turbine companies from their responsibilities to the environment.

But while, elsewhere, Bulgaria raises concerns about the effect of 12 proposed turbines on a migration 'bottleneck' for storks and pelicans and Germany worries about a small, but significant threat to the habitats of the Great Bustard, wind turbines will remain an important weapon in governments' battles against global warming. For some, there is even a bonus! Although not to everybody's liking, the inhabitants of Tucker County, West Virginia, USA, have discovered that the windmills have become a tourist attraction. "They're an oddity". Tell that to the birds!

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Notes

If this had been a 'normal' website, I would have included a side column, into which I would have put links to video footage, if available, on the Altramont Pass Wind Reserve + the Nysted wind farm, as well as links to interviews with important players, such as Steven Stengel of FPL Energy and CEBC's Andy Pullin (along with a link to downloads of the software required to play them).

Additionally, in this column, I would have put many more relevant links, including links to the companies and plaintiffs involved in the Altramont lawsuit and to further information on the birds in question (such as to the Raptor Foundation ), as well as other relevant news stories and links to important reports concerned with the story (which I have inserted below, as I feel they add to the story although I have not used material from them which I needed to reference, and I would have used the CEBC Review link in with the story, had it been possible to insert more than one link in a paragraph).

California Energy Commission: Assessment of Avian Mortality from Collisions and Electrocutions, June 2005

Centre for Evidence-Based Conservation: Effects of wind turbines on bird abundance, 2004

UK Department of Trade and Industry: Assessment of the Effects of Offshore Wind Farms on Birds, 2001