Wind power is often criticized for the harm wind turbines can cause to birds. Now the American Wind Energy Association has launched a campaign to counter claims that turbines are bird-grinders and that, in fact, wind can be beneficial to wildlife.
“Expanding the use of wind power improves environmental conditions for wildlife because wind power has none of the harmful emissions, water use, mining, drilling and hazardous waste of other energy sources”, said AWEA.
The organization said the industry is committed to reducing its “low impacts” on the environment that surrounds wind turbines and farms. Recently NBC’s Nightly News featured the efforts to repower older wind turbines in California to reduce their impacts on birds.
The video below shows experts from the energy and environmental sectors making the case for wind power in relation to wildlife. What do you think? What can the wind industry do to protect birds from colliding with turbines?
Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.
2 comments
I never thought about the birds getting hurt by the blades. Its great to know companies are addressing the issue.
The fact is, this country has had air travel, guy wires, and cellphone towers stretched from ocean to ocean for many years. Birds fall victim to these mainstays much more frequently than to wind turbines. The issue with large wind turbines isn’t necessarily that they fly into a blade and get “grinded”. It has more to do with the lighting on the turbine. Red and flashing lights can throw off migration, cause birds to get disoriented during dusk and night, especially during a weather event where the light is blurred. Birds will circle and collide with wind turbines, but also with guy wires in this case. There is also the case of large wind turbines creating enough low pressure that bat lungs can explode when entering this area. That has been found at NREL’s wind technology center. In large part, its a shame that some people are making this an issue, as if the wind industry is some behemoth that cares little about the natural environment. It is an answer to traditional forms of energy that don’t care about the natural environment. I support wind and solar siting that pays close attention to critical habitats and animal species, but my criticism ends there. Coal, natural gas, and oil will never play nice with the environment, no matter how hard we try, yet they still dominate the U.S. total power production.
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