Wind Farms and Birds

Posted by
Rosemary Drisdelle
Oct 16, 2006

Wind turbines seem to be the current favorite means to generate clean renewable energy, but there is plenty of heated debate about just how great they are. Those who don’t like them complain that they’re noisy and ugly – and that they kill a lot of birds. The first two problems may be debatable, but there’s no doubt that wind turbines do kill birds. It’s surprising how many trusting birds fly near the tall structures only to die a sudden and violent death as the blades come around.

It seems, however, that some wind farms are much more lethal to birds than others - it’s all about location. When turbines are placed in migration flyways or in the hunting areas of bird species, they can take a terrible toll. If they’re placed in locations where birds are less likely to visit, they’re not such a problem. Perhaps, with proper environmental assessments, we can reach an acceptable compromise.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the United Kingdom is off to a good start: the society has just produced a map of the British Isles that identifies areas where wind farms could be particularly lethal to birds. According to the map, almost a third of the land area poses either low risk to birds or the risk is unknown. It will be interesting to see what wind farm developers do with this information.

Source: News.Scotsman.com, Oct 10, 2006

Read Birds and Windmills for more details about the problem of wind turbines and bird mortality.