Blog 7: Fry: Wind farms reap a grim harvest

The wind power development adds another threat to birds will not breed near tall structures for fear and springtime booming sage grouse is being replaced with the eerier whoosh of whirring turbines. Global warming threatens ecosystems, and act to reduce carbon emissions to maintain the planet’s biodiversity. But one potential solution carries threats of its own to be mitigated. “Wind power is the fastest-growing form of alternative energy, with projections that it will grow twelvefold over the next 20 years. This will mean about 175,000 turbines installed on more than 30,000 square miles of land — more land than in New Hampshire, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island combined”. Wind is the only sector in the USA that is free from the federal regulation and each month new wind installations springing up like daisies, too little for environment review.

The wind development is far less destructive than many types of energy production, such as mountaintop-removal coal mining, wind power's threats to wildlife are not inconsequential. The high winds frequently overlap with the bird habitat. The habitat issues, bird collisions with wind turbines are mounting. It may look like those blades spin lazily in the breeze, but their tips can reach speeds of 200 mph. If the bird strikes this blade then it will kill the birds and every year as many as 11 bird killed by each turbine. The environmental and wind industry is discussing how to save the birds and wildlife habitats.

The wind industry has asserted that wind projects allowed anywhere where there is good wind power potential, and protected areas. Wind Advisory Committee has agreed to recommend large "no go" buffer zones around sage grouse and prairie chicken breeding grounds. Wind developers also have agreed to consult early with the Fish and Wildlife Service on new wind farm proposals. “The difficult issue of how to protect flocks of migrating birds from collisions with the turbine rotors but the American Bird Conservancy and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has organized a team of experts to develop recommendations and a research agenda to tackle these problems and knowledge gaps”.