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Are wind turbines really that bad for birds?
Easy Answer: Yes. Somewhere between 58,000 and 440,000 birds each year die because of wind turbines.
Wind farms continue to spring up, as people look for alternative energy sources. I recently
did a story about the Terra-Gen wind farm in the Mojave desert, one of the largest in the world. The problem with wind turbines is they are super good at killing birds--especially migratory songbirds. But are we really talking about enough birds to worry about?
I wrote to a bird expert named Albert Manville at the Fish and Wildlife Service to find out. I asked him how the number of birds killed by wind turbines compares to the number killed by windows, cats and cars compares. (According to a publication from the Fish and Wildlife Service, cats might kill 100s of millions of birds a year.)
This is what he told me.
"Comparing bird deaths from wind turbine collisions and barotrauma to other sources of mortality -- e.g., building windows, vehicles, cats, or communication towers -- is akin to trying to compare apples to kumquats. It confuses and muddies the waters. The bigger issue is one of cumulative impacts, specifically what mortality factor will become the proverbial "straw that breaks the camel's back." Will it be wind energy, new building windows, oil spills, or another source(s)? We simply don't know. While wind mortality may presently be relatively low, impacts are all about risk. The blade-caused collision death of 1 Whooping Crane becomes an impact to its entire population."
It's not just the turbine blades that are bad news for birds--wind farms can often disrupt and disturb habitat.
But, there are ways to minimize the problem: "Selecting the most wildlife- and habitat-friendly sites is critically important, and where wind is being developed in high risk areas, collisions could be reduced by blade "feathering" (idling), changes in blade cut-in speeds, setbacks, pylons replacing deadly turbines and other options."
Want more? Here's
on minimizing the number of birds killed by wind turbines.
Photo credit: Flickr user brentdanley.
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The fact is that some birds are killed by wind turbines but also we must know that one wind turbine can produce enough electricity to power 300-400 homes and the total installed capacity of wind farms in the U.S. is more than 40,000 megawatts.So comparing this facts and a lot more that i find in http://www.solarpowerfacts.biz/2012/vertical-wind-turbines/,i think that people will still invest a lot in wind turbines and only thing we can do is to look for some solution for preventing the death of birds as much as we can.
The old USFWS estimate of 440,000 birds killed annually is based on only 25GW of installed capacity. Today in the US we are at 53 GW of installed capacity, with another 10,000 MW currently under construction. Some studies from out of this country show a death rate of over 100 birds per MW from wind turbines but the AWEA estimates only 2.9 birds killed per MW. These numbers might as well come from Syria and Iran because the real numbers are at least 10 times higher. The bottom line is this ......the public has been lied to about these impacts for decades so the industry could prosper.
This year nearly 3 times whooping cranes went missing during their migration when compared to the disastrous year of 2008-2009. For those cranes, the USFWS claimed that they died from the drought. I believe it was a cover story. The testimony given at the whooping crane trial in Texas states that the cranes died even before they arrived in Aransas and no bodies or evidence was provided during the trial substantiate that the cranes died from the drought. Everyone interested should read the transcript. It is gives very different account than the stories told in National Geographic and other articles.
Here is what Tom Stehn said in this article about the wind industry threat to whooping cranes…………..wind-turbines-may-threaten-whooping-cranes
“Basically you can overlay the strongest, best areas for wind turbine development with the whooping crane migration corridor,” said Tom Stehn, whooping crane coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The service estimates as many as 40,000 turbines will be erected in the U.S. section of the whooping cranes’ 200-mile wide migration corridor.”
40,000 wind turbines in the whooping crane migration corridor will create over 16 billion cubic feet of airspace with turbine blades spinning at 200 mph. These figures do not include the wind developments north of the US border in Canada. This is why the free flying population can not possibly survive in the years to come.
If anybody is scratching their heads and wondering where the cranes are going consider the conditions that exist for the wind industry. The industry has their own special USFWS “voluntary regulations” that offer no accountability, they use bogus mortality searches around turbines with search areas 8-10 times too small, there are gag orders are written into contracts with leaseholders and employees, there is high security at all wind farms, and the wind industry personnel are picking up bodies and hiding them. All these conditions enable the industry to conceal their impacts. The whooping Crane flock lost approximately 100 members last year.
Then there are the missing Golden Eagles that have died in Texas. Where are these records? Studies have proven how deadly these turbines are to the golden eagle. At the 580 MW Altamont Pass, studies have shown that wind turbines kill golden eagles at rate of 75– 116 or 0.13 – 0.2 per MW per year. Altamont Pass is not unique because at every wind farm located in eagle habitat, there are the same deadly combination of circumstances, wind currents, prey species, soaring eagles, and huge blades ripping through the air hundreds of feet up. Golden eagles have to eat and they are smashed from the air at all wind farms located in eagle habitat because they are forced to hunt around these turbines. By my estimates 3000-5000 golden eagles have perished in Texas over the last 20 years.
For more information on the Whooping cranes visit the Whooping Crane Conservation Association web site and look up flock status. Make sure you click on the graph that shows their steep population decline that began with the explosion of turbines that have invaded their migration route. Also when you get there you can also read what Tom Stehn had to say about the newly adopted (Bogus) USFWS method of counting/exaggerating whooping cranes.
The old USFWS estimate of 440,000 birds killed annually is based on only 25GW of installed capacity. Today in the US we are at 50GW of installed capacity, with another 10,000 MW currently under construction. Some studies from out of this country show a death rate of over 100 birds per MW from wind turbines but the AWEA estimates only 2.9 birds killed per MW. These numbers might as well come from Syria and Iran because the real numbers are at least 10 times higher. The bottom line is this ......the public has been lied to about these impacts for decades so the industry could prosper.
This year nearly 3 times whooping cranes went missing during their migration when compared to the disastrous year of 2008-2009. For those cranes, the USFWS claimed that they died from the drought. I believe it was a cover story. The testimony given at the whooping crane trial in Texas states that the cranes died even before they arrived in Aransas and no bodies or evidence was provided during the trial substantiate that the cranes died from the drought. Everyone interested should read the transcript. It is gives very different account than the stories told in National Geographic and other articles.
If anybody is scratching their heads and wondering where the cranes are going consider the conditions that exist for the wind industry. The industry has their own special USFWS “voluntary regulations” that offer no accountability, they use bogus mortality searches around turbines with search areas 8-10 times too small, there are gag orders are written into contracts with leaseholders and employees, there is high security at all wind farms, and the wind industry personnel are picking up bodies and hiding them. All these conditions enable the industry to conceal their impacts. The whooping Crane flock lost approximately 100 members last year.
Then there are the missing Golden Eagles that have died in Texas. Where are these records? Studies have proven how deadly these turbines are to the golden eagle. At the 580 MW Altamont Pass, studies have shown that wind turbines kill golden eagles at rate of 75– 116 or 0.13 – 0.2 per MW per year. Altamont Pass is not unique because at every wind farm located in eagle habitat, there are the same deadly combination of circumstances, wind currents, prey species, soaring eagles, and huge blades ripping through the air hundreds of feet up. Golden eagles have to eat and they are smashed from the air at all wind farms located in eagle habitat because they are forced to hunt around these turbines. By my estimates 3000-5000 golden eagles have perished in Texas over the last 20 years.
For people new to Mr. Wiegand, they should know that he makes up his own numbers for bird mortality based on his unique -- and completely unsupported -- analysis of bird mortality counting methodology. His numbers are alarming but unsupported by reality or anyone except anti-wind lobbyists.
Mr. Wiegand also leaves out the only real connection to this field that he has: he is the 'VP' of an anti-wind farm lobbying organization, misleadingly named Save the Eagles International.
As usual, Mr. Wiegand makes many allegations and assertions, but provides no references. It's easy to understand why as any reading of the references would show a very different story than the one he makes up.
This guy's comments read like a wind industry impact report. Totally bogus. People better believe my numbers are real because nearly 100 whooping cranes disappeared this year. Also in my research I have 100 percent proof that the golden eagle population is collapsing in CA. The information will be released in an article coming out in a few weeks. But then again it makes perfect sense since wind turbine collisions were shown to be the number one cause of mortality in a radio-tagged eagle study conducted over 10 years ago. This damn industry knew it but just covered it up and kept on building their turbines.
Make no mistake on this, we will be losing the Whooping Crane population to the propeller-style wind turbine, and when it happens I want everyone to remember the corruption behind all this.
» The USFWS with their “voluntary regulations” for the wind industry.
» The bogus mortality searches around turbines with search areas 8-10 times too small.
» The wind industry gag orders written into contracts with leaseholders and employees.
» The high security at all wind farms.
» The wind industry personnel picking up bodies and hiding them.
» Bogus population surveys.
» Bogus impacts studies
» The approximately 200 Whooping Cranes that went missing in the last 6 years after thousands of wind turbines were placed in their habitats.
» Most of all, remember the silence about any of this from the USFWS and the wind industry.
Everyone should realize that wind industry operates in complete secrecy with total control of their wind farms. Wind farms are patrolled daily by personnel looking for bodies and a huge white bird would be hard to miss. A sliced up whooping crane body will never be produced from a wind farm until they get their incidental kill permits (this is in their plans) from the USFWS. Some whooping cranes are wearing GPS transmitters, but if one happens to die at a wind farm with a transmitter on, they know the drill, just take the transmitter and give it a ride away from the site.
Let's talk about whooping cranes for a minute, as Wiegand keeps bringing them up all over comment threads, and is being quoted in anti-wind and anti-PTC articles.
The world's leading expert on whooping cranes, Tom Stehn, attributes the recent losses to drought. He testifies to this in court. He worked his entire life to restore whooping crane populations and knew each bird.
http://whoopingcrane.com/2012/07/
As we look at drought, the leading cause of it these days is climate change. Climate change is something that wind farms are directly assisting with. Saying that wind turbines are slaughtering whooping cranes is directly and exactly against reality.
The only person saying that wind farms are killing whooping cranes is Wiegand, and he doesn't work with whooping cranes, live anywhere near their habitat or corridor, study them or count them. His analysis has no empirical evidence for wind turbines causing whooping crane fatalities. When pressed Wiegand refuses to references or citations.
Wiegand is obsessed with bird deaths by wind turbines, to the point where he makes up impacts where none exist. If Wiegand were actually a bird advocate he would be doing what every major bird group is doing: advocating for more wind farms and some care with siting. But he is actually an anti-wind lobbyist.
For the full analysis with citations, I've written this up on Quora.com at this link: http://www.quora.com/Wind-Power/Are-wind-farms-killing-endangered-whoopi...
At the Atlantic City, NJ 5 Turbine Industrial wind site, within the first year of operations a Peregrine Falcon was confirmed killed...there are only 25 breeding pair in the state. There were an estimated 40 Endangered Raptors killed, and 76 birds/bats killed per turbine per year in the two of study. The Audubon Society did the studies...as hundred and hundreds of these massive machine dominate the landscape you can expect extinctions. 60-100 Golden Eagles die each year in Altamont...the California population is 1100 and they are now in decline after making a come back. Burrowing Owls in another study at Atlamont were found to have up to 184% of the population die...so not only local decimation....but any nearby populations were being wiped out...and with directives to allow unlimited raptors deaths at US Fish and Wildlife and other "Green" DEP departments you can expect...
Nothing will be done...except spend billions and billions on the grand experiment...which will provide up to 10% of energy 15% of the time...great use of our money...note a study by Mckinsey confirmed that Efficiency projects did a much more cost effective job of removing CO2(and reducing demand and freeing open space)...but not separating money from rate and tax payers.
Really,it's very impressive and you have great idea.
<a href="http://www.maurymw.com/ ">
Noise Figure</a>
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