Can wind turbines harm wildlife?
A key challenge facing the wind industry is the potential for turbines to adversely affect wild animals both directly, via collisions, as well as indirectly due to noise pollution, habitat loss, and reduced survival or reproduction. Among the most impacted wildlife are birds and bats, which by eating destructive insects provide billions of dollars of economic benefits to the country’s agricultural sector each year.
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What materials are used to make wind turbines?
How many wind turbines are installed in the U.S. each year?
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How are wind turbine data collected?
How many turbines are contained in the U.S. Wind Turbine Database?
Why is it important to know the locations of wind turbines?
How are bats affected by wind turbines?
New USGS Analysis of Wind Turbine Upgrades Shows No Impact on Wildlife Mortality
CORVALLIS, ORE. – Reduction in wildlife mortality rates is sometimes cited as a potential benefit to the replacement of older, smaller turbines by larger, next generation turbines. In contrast, others have expressed concern that newer, larger turbines may actually increase bird and bat deaths.
Analysis of Surveys to Predict Eagle Interactions with Wind Energy Facilities
To minimize golden eagle fatalities in areas proposed for wind development, point count surveys are usually conducted to estimate bird use.
Mapping the Nation's Wind Turbines
There are more than 57,000 wind turbines across the United States, and a new tool allows you to get up close and personal with each one!
U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Department of Energy Release Online Public Dataset and Viewer of U.S. Wind Turbine Locations and Characteristics
Today, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in partnership with DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the American Wind Energy Association, released the United States Wind Turbine Database (USWTDB) and the USWTDB Viewer to access this new public dataset.
Flight Response of California Condors to Inform Risk from Wind Turbines
Large soaring birds rely on topographic and weather conditions also preferred by wind facility developers.
Raptor Interactions with Wind Energy: Case Studies from Around the World
Attempts to measure and mitigate the effects of wind turbines on wildlife have been an integral part of wind energy development.
Wind Turbines Affect Behavior of Desert Tortoise Predators
How a wind energy facility is designed can influence the behavior of animal predators and their prey, according to a recent study published in The Journal of Wildlife Management by researchers at the University of California, Davis, and the U.S. Geological Survey.
A Deadly Double Punch: Together, Turbines and Disease Jeopardize Endangered Bats
Advancing Wind Energy and Avoiding Wildlife Conflicts
Our Nation works to advance renewable energy and to avoid conflicts with and conserve wildlife.
Local Wind Energy Development Has Broad Consequences for Golden Eagles
Roughly over a quarter of the golden eagles killed at the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area in Northern California from 2012-2014 were recent immigrants to the local population, according to research led by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Wind turbines at the Altamont Pass Wind Farm
The Altamont Pass Wind Far is located in northern California.
UV lights being tested as a deterrent for bats at wind turbines.
UV lights being tested as a deterrent for bats at wind turbines.
A bat that was killed by a wind turbine laying in the grass.
A bat that was killed by a wind turbine laying in the grass.
Sandhill Cranes Near Wind Turbines
Sandhill Cranes fly in close proximity to wind turbines near Horicon National Wildlife Refuge in east-central Wisconsin, but to date no crane mortality has been associated with turbines in this area.
A radio-tracked desert tortoise traverses at a wind energy facility
A radio-tracked adult desert tortoise traverses a hill at the southern edge of the wind energy facility near Palm Springs, California.
How a wind energy facility is designed can influence the behavior of animal predators and their prey, according to a recent study published in The
...A radio-tracked tortoise basks in the sun among the wind turbines
A radio-tracked adult desert tortoise basks in the sun among the wind turbines at a wind energy facility near Palm Springs, California.
How a wind energy facility is designed can influence the behavior of animal predators and their prey, according to a recent study published in The
...Bats and Wind Energy
USGS biologist Paul Cryan. Biologists hope to learn more about the scale and causes of bat fatalities at wind turbines by searching for carcasses of bats beneath turbines and carefully documenting the conditions under which they are found.
Wind Turbines
Wind turbines at certain sites in North America each cause dozens of bat fatalities per year.
Wind Turbine Blade
This photo shows one of the three 135-ft blades of a turbine before installation. Although the blades of wind turbines appear to move quite slowly to the human eye, blade tips often move at speeds faster than 100 mph.
Bat approaching wind turbine GIF 2
This GIF uses thermal imagery to show a bat approaching a wind turbine tower.