More on Wind Turbines
July 7th, 2005
A hot discussion broke out in the comments this morning over wind turbines’ effect on bird mortality. Here’s some key updates:
1) Painting the blades with UV reflective paint, using smooth-bore cylindrical towers to reduce perching opportunities, and both placement of towers and radio transmitters are being developed as ways to combat bird death.
2) The Altamont Pass is a unique case because it is along a migration route for some birds – and mortality rates have been much lower at other wind farms – only 0.00006% of the migrating population at one nearby farm, and turbines represent only 0.01% to 0.02% of all bird collisions with man-made objects.
3) The Altamont issue is still being addressed – as I was writing this, the local news (Palo Alto) did a report on the Altamont Pass farm, and a bill under consideration would require windfarmers to take down the 100 most deadly turbines, and replace other older models with more modern equipment within 13 years.
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July 8th, 2005 at 10:07 am
thanks for the update jeff!
July 8th, 2005 at 10:50 am
muchos gracias
July 14th, 2005 at 6:59 pm
Win turbines don’t really kill any more bids than say other high rise objects like buildings. In any case the amount of bird fatalities is negligable to the number there are.
If you painted the blades with UV reflective paint this could be seen for miles in the dark, something that residents really would object to.
Unfortunately turbines are built right in the path of birds, because that is where the wind is. No doubt birds will adapt their flight path. But as i said considder the other high rise structures that contribute to bird obsticles like telephone wires, buildings and telephone masts.