“It’s a Bird… It’s a Bat… It’s Wind Turbines”

Yanan Cheng,  Shayama Khan, and Stella Murray

 

 

At the turn of the 21st century, sustainable energy began to grow as an alternative to energy generated by fossil fuels. The kinetic quality of wind has become part of this alternative, as it has the potential to generate mechanical power. The movement of wind turbine blades generates power, which is consequently converted into electricity by a generator. Wind energy’s  popularity and publicity have grown over the past two decades.

Yet,  advertisements regarding improvements to humankind and our daily lives seem to disregard the effect on animals and their habitats. Wind power has proven to benefit the lives of humans in generating electricity without producing pollution and taking advantage of renewable resources. However, it has also proven to be a detriment to the animal world by killing birds and bats, creating disturbances to the environment, and only being beneficial in a limited number of locations. The pros and cons of wind power not only bring up the question of which side outweighs the other but also who has more precedence – humans or animals?

A 2018 wind turbine commercial by General Electric. Source: General Electric

Different Ways to Assess Sustainable Buildings

Simon Guy and Graham Farmer, who work at the intersection of architecture, engineering, and social issues, list six competing logics of “green” buildings and ethics: ecological, smart, aesthetic, symbolic, comfort and community. The six categories encompass varying approaches to designing a more ecological aware environment, but they are not exclusive. For example, both ecological and smart ethics use the benefits of renewable energy. Ecological ethics takes into account a building’s ecological footprint and the impact that it may have on the consumption of water, energy, and waste. “Smart” logics, on the other hand, espouses smart technology as a means by which the environment can be managed in order to stabilize and maintain the richness of resources.

Wind energy follows both ecological and smart logics as defined by Guy  and Farmer. In the following section, we investigate of the advantages and disadvantages of wind energy, and bring up ethical questions at a scale encompassing both humans and animals.

Wind Turbines Enhance Human Lives in More Ways Than One

Due to the development of low-priced renewable energy technologies, electricity produced by wind-energy generators costs between four and six cents per kilowatt-hour. In 2016, the U.S. wind-energy sector employed more than 100,000 workers  to operate these turbines. Because of the growth in this sector, wind turbine technicians have become  part of one of the fastest-growing American work fields. According to the federal government’s 2008 Wind Vision Report, the production of wind energy has the potential to create more than 600,000 jobs in manufacturing, installation, maintenance, and supporting services by 2050. The installation of wind turbines typically takes place on existing farms or ranches. This benefits rural-area economies and permits farmers and ranchers to continue working the land. Even though wind turbines take up only a fraction of their land, the owners of wind “farms” still make rent payments  to the farmer or rancher for the use of land, which provides the landowner with an additional source of income.

As a form of solar energy , wind energy is considered to be unlimited. The wind one feels is due to the sun heating up the atmosphere, and the rotation and the surface irregularities of the earth. As long as the sun shines, wind will continue to blow and to produce wind energy. Wind production doesn’t pollute the air like traditional energy generators that rely on the combustion of fossil fuels. Unlike fossil fuels, wind energy does not emit toxic substances or contaminants into the air. The substances and contaminants released through burning fossil fuels can potentially acidify land and water ecosystems, corrode buildings, and trigger heart disease, cancer, and respiratory diseases. Not only  does wind-energy production not contaminate water, it does not rely on water-consumption either. This is essential in conserving hydrological resources.

Yet despite wind energy’s advantages, what is its impact on avians?

Wind Turbines Negatively Impact the Mortality Rate of Avians

Do wind turbines affect avian mortality? The answer is yes, but perhaps not to the extent sometimes reported, especially with improvements in tower design.

The impact of wind energy on wildlife can be categorized into two kinds: direct and indirect. The mortality from collisions with wind turbines is considered to be a direct impact. One of the largest victim groups of wind turbines is birds. According to researchers, 0.15 million birds are killed by wind turbines per year in the United States. Other victim groups are bats and raptors. Researchers have shown that the main reason behind avian mortality is the tower design. For example, the Altamont Pass wind turbines located in Northern California account for most of the high bird mortality rate in that area. The majority of these older wind turbines have lower hub heights and shorter rotor diameters, compared to modern wind turbines. This requires tighter turbine spacing and turbine blades that spin at a higher rate per minute than in later models. Another aspect is that older wind turbines often have lattice towers that attract the nesting of birds.

Indirect impacts of wind turbines include habitat disruption and displacement . The indirect impacts of wind turbines can be understood through a study that was conducted on Grassland passerines on the Buffalo Ridge Wind Resource Area in southwestern Minnesota. The research was conducted in the summer of 1995  to determine the relative influence of wind turbines on overall densities of upland nesting birds in the Conservation Reserve Program.

The Conservation Reserve Program, under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, pays farmers to select crops out of production throughout the year and to convert them to vegetative cover. This is in an effort to reduce land erosion, improve land quality, and affect wildlife benefits.

The study found that the total bird density was lower in Conservation Reserve Program grasslands containing turbines than in Conservation Reserve Program grasslands without turbines. Despite this difference in density, it is a relief to know that according to recent research conducted by the National Wind Coordinating Committee, the impact on avians is relatively low and does not pose a threat to the species populations. The death of birds caused by wind turbines only constitutes a small part of anthropogenic bird mortality. Among an estimate of 925.6 to 1,804 million anthropogenic bird deaths per year in the U.S, only 0.15 to 0.44 million were caused by wind turbines.

The Negative Impact on Avians can be Mitigated

With the advancements of wind turbine design and ultrasonic technology, it may be possible to decrease the number of avian deaths. Researchers are already working on improving wind turbines through tower redesign, turbine lighting and adjusting rotor blade height. Earlier wind turbines were once located very close to each other. Their rapidly spinning blades and lattice tower mounts resulted in a high number of death of birds that perched on them. The new generation of wind turbines is large, spaced apart, and complete fewer rotations per minute. Not only can advanced design and technology reduce the number of deaths, but more research and proper management of wind turbines can also help mitigate the rate of death and even bring potential benefits  to some species. Avoiding sites with high avian activity can reduce the collision rate of birds and bats with turbine blades.

The wind that is used to generate energy is also what birds use to migrate across the U.S. Thus, a closer look into bird migration patterns and a study of why birds are attracted to wind turbines can help decide the location and the design of new wind turbines. Furthermore, researchers are now adopting further technological strategies  to protect avians  from  wind turbines. For example, wind farm developers are developing ultrasonic deterrents to warn bats away from turbines. Other than simply warning off birds and bats, managing the turbines in accordance to the life of inhabitants may be a better way of protecting them and may even result in potential benefits to them.

Wind Turbines are Ethical Means that Benefit all Living Beings

 The potential of wind energy makes it a sustainability-centric approach to harvesting energy. Wind turbines are a sustainable means of harnessing energy without consuming excess water, they do not pollute the environment in the short-term but encourage the long-term survival of the planet, and they reduce the human ecological footprint. From a different perspective, the innovative technology behind wind energy makes it a “smart” approach to energy production. Even though wind energy is at the forefront of recent technological breakthroughs, the means by which energy is efficiently produced has different effects on humans and animals. Wind turbines are undeniably an ethical means of energy production from the human point of view, yet the negative impact of wind turbines on animals must also be considered.

As Guy and Farmer point out, “Moral judgments are fundamentally social; as part of the intricate cultural systems constructed within communities, they are built, refined, and transmitted through the process of communication and education.”

Who is part of this community? In a more perfect world, the community should consider both humans and animals. When discussing wind energy and its ethics within the framework of sustainable living, we should consider the needs of all parties involved. The benefits of wind energy over fossil fuel energy are very real – implementing them responsibly and ethically  is a human decision.

 

References

— “201: Wind Energy Benefits & Challenges – KOHILO Wind Turbines.” KOHILO Wind Turbines. Accessed December 09, 2018. http://kohilowind.com/kohilo-university/201-wind-energy-benefits-challenges/.

— “Advantages and Challenges of Wind Energy.” Department of Energy. Accessed December 09, 2018. https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/advantages-and-challenges-wind-energy.

— “Causes of Bird Mortality.” Sibley Guides. Accessed December 09, 2018. http://www.sibleyguides.com/conservation/causes-of-bird-mortality/.

— “Why Solar and Wind Are Thriving Despite Cheap Fossil Fuels.” National Geographic. January 22, 2016. Accessed December 09, 2018. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/energy/2016/01/160122-why-solar-and-wind-thrive-despite-cheap-oil-and-ga/.

— Wind Turbine Interactions with Wildlife and Their Habitats. Report. American Wind Wildlife Institute. Accessed December 7, 2018. https://awwi.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Turbine-Interactions-Summary-2018.pdf.

— “Wildlife Impacts of Wind Energy.” WINDExchange: U.S. Department of Energy. Accessed December 09, 2018. https://windexchange.energy.gov/projects/wildlife.

Fox, Warwick. Ethics and the Built Environment. London: Routledge, 2000. 

Leddy, K.L., K.F. Higgins, and D.E. Naugle. “Effects of Wind Turbines on Upland Nesting Birds in Conservation Reserve Program Grasslands.” Water-Resources Investigations Report. January 01, 1999. Accessed December 09, 2018. https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/70021928.

Redlitz, Heidi. “Wind vs. Solar – Which Power Source Is Better?” Green Future. May 05, 2016. Accessed December 07, 2018. https://greenfuture.io/solar/wind-vs-solar-energy/.

Saidur, N.A. Rahim, M.R. Islam, K.H. Solangi. 2011. “Environmental impact of wind energy.” Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2423–2430.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032111000669

Siegle, Lucy. “Do Wind Turbines Kill Wildlife?” The Guardian. September 26, 2009. Accessed December 09, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/sep/27/wind-power-wildlife-lucy-siegle.