[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/EW-01-15-14-Windmills-II.mp3|titles=EW 01-15-14 Windmills II]
The impact of windmills and wind turbines on birds is controversial, to say the least. It’s not surprising that the American Wind Energy Association claims that there is no significant mortality of birds associated with windmills. It’s alarming that Save the Eagle International reports that 116 Golden Eagles were killed each year at the wind-turbine farms in Altamont Pass, California. But each of these groups has a clear agenda. Who are we to believe?
Duke Energy Renewables, a division of North Carolina’s Duke Energy, just pled guilty to the deaths of 14 Golden Eagles and a variety of other birds at its wind farm in Wyoming, which it constructed in the face of knowledge that bird deaths were likely. The fine was $1,000,000—not small change, but not worth risking a potentially higher penalty with unsuccessful litigation. Clearly, windmills in the wrong places can kill birds.
The problem of birds and wind mills deserves careful studies by scientists without a stake in the outcome of the work. Like all sources of energy, from natural gas by fracking to nuclear power, an unbiased analysis of wind power with the best science will allow policy makers to make the best decisions.
My suspicion is that we will learn that there are good places to put windmills and bad places. I suspect too that there are good windmill designs and bad windmill designs. What a challenge for a bright young mechanical engineer to tackle as a project!
If there is any lesson to learn from the controversy about windmills, it’s that the public should support the best science done in the public’s interest.
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Photo, taken on July 21, 2011, courtesy of Thangaraj Kumaravel via Flickr.
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