Property Values |
Wildlife |
The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish figured it out a while ago. Even though the state’s climate and topography seemed, at first glance, to be the perfect calling card for the squeaky-clean/green patina of the wind energy industry, there was still no free pass for the environment. The expansive array of wildlife habitats intermingling with indigenous flora was subject to a stealthier set of threats than the all-too familiar industrial chug of oil and gas production. Wind-energy facilities, the soft-sell terminology for industrial wind turbines, shared a downside with oil and gas developments: they fragmented wildlife habitat with a labyrinth of pre-construction access roads, post-construction underground and/or above-ground transmission lines, and 24/7/365 operational features that impacted the area for animal and plant life within a multi-mile radius. Mammal, reptile, insect, plants of all kinds – all paid a substantial price too. There was no free lunch, not even blowing in the wind.
The footprint for wind facilities, though not of the carbon variety, is nonetheless far larger than the ground and airspace occupied by industrial wind turbines alone. The sheer size - height and girth - of the tower bodies, in combination with rotational forces generated by spinning blades, require extensively engineered foundation systems, often invading the same bedrock layers shared by aquifers supplying drinking water. In general, each industrial turbine requires 40 to 100 acres, resulting in large-scale wind farms dominating thousands of acres. Unfortunately, the wind energy industry has initiated little science-based analysis of the impact of their production facilities to the environment, opting instead to allow the feel-good concept of “green” to drive their taxpayer-subsidized bandwagon.
Specifically with respect to wildlife mortality, wind turbines are inextricably linked to bird and bat mortality. Prominent American wildlife ecologist and ornithologist Albert Manville estimates that as many as 440,000 birds are killed by existing wind turbines in the United States every year. The numbers are driven by the irony that the most productive energy-producing wind currents just happen to form the migratory flyways that billions of birds use during their seasonal journeys.
Habitat degradation - the destruction of flora, ground vegetation, and water sources - associated with the pre- and post-construction phases of wind facilities, poses real-time threats to bats as well as beneficial insects. Our mid-Atlantic states have undertaken studies linking bat mortality numbers directly with increased construction of wind energy farms. By 2020, bat mortality figures are estimated in the tens of thousands per year in that region alone. The implications for mosquito abatement efforts are obvious - more taxpayer dollars will be required for insecticide products applied in watershed areas and residential neighborhoods.
Additionally, the threats to pollinating species, such as bees and butterflies, cannot be ignored. The workhorse of the group, the honey bee in laymen’s terms, has virtually disappeared from its traditional workplace. Efforts by domestic beekeepers to provide this vital species are being compromised by causes still being identified. Adding insecticides to replace bats is an option that even a fifth grader would have the common sense to avoid.
Not everything bad associated with wind turbines happens within earshot of the rotors or under the noses of abutting property owners. Electromagnetic fields generated by underwater electric transmission cables from offshore wind farms and pile driver vibrations during wind turbine construction may have major effects on fishery habitats, according to British researchers speaking at a March 31 symposium at the University of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay Campus.
Sharks, eels and rays are attracted to underwater electric cables, according to Professor Andrew Gill of Cranfield University in the United Kingdom. Related research by Frank Thomsen, Scientific Program Manager for the United Kingdom’s Center for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, found that pile-driving noise repels cod and sole and alters the natural swimming characteristics of both species, impacting both their natural roles as both predator and prey.
The more we learn about wind energy, the more we have to learn. While many believe that wind energy offers great potential for the future, even more understand that a fevered rush to install legions of industrial machines in critical environmental habitats could easily go viral – resulting in a lot worse than “just another headache.
References:
http://www.wind-watch.org/faq-wildlife.php
http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-environment/eu-moves-protect-wildlife-wind-turbines-news-499400
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/montana/news/news3028.html
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/montana/news/news3028.html
http://maryland.sierraclub.org/action/p0133.asp
http://www.offshorewind.biz/2011/02/03/wind-turbines-could-kill-millions-of-birds-by-2030/