Wind Power Dangerous to Birds

Birds, bats and wind turbines – still a bad combination.

Researchers are studying wind farm in the Northwest to determine their impact on the local raptor population (that’s hawks, eagles, vultures and other big birds of prey). Big wind farms, naturally, are located in areas with strong, consistent wind patterns; unfortunately, those winds are also appealing to large birds, allowing them to glide for hours while scouting for prey. And when a diving hawk comes into contact with the whirring blade of a wind turbine, well it’s not pretty. Turbines also are a danger to bats, for all the same reasons.

“It’s like a crime scene,” says one researcher in this article from The Seattle Times, who’s been keeping track of the number of bird-kills for the wind-power industry. The initial results show that wind power is not a major threat to wildlife (but the studies were commissioned by the power companies, so were you really expecting a different answer?).

Still, this is an issue that won’t go away. I covered it back in 2005, when the Altamont Pass wind farm in California was temporarily shut down so environmental researchers could find a way to minimize the number of bird kills. A 2004 report found 880 to 1,300 raptors were killed at Altamont every year, including red-tailed hawks and the federally protected golden eagle.

The best answer, it seems, is finding locations for wind farms without a major population of raptors. Of course, if you don’t do your homework, then a big wind farm will eventually make sure the local area doesn’t have a substantial raptor population.

Focus On: Tidal Energy

Tidal power has always been one of our favorite ideas, and now it’s starting to evolve from cool theoretical concept to a practical source of energy.

Ocean Power Technologies is one of the front-runners here, with ongoing projects in Australia, Spain, two in the United Kingdom, Hawaii, New Jersey and two in Oregon.

Most of these are small deployments, mainly to test the technology, but the Oregon projects are noteworthy because they are slated to be full-scale, commercial power wave parks. In Coos Bay, OPT has proposed installing up to 200 of its PowerBuoys about 2.7 miles offshore, enough to generate up to 100 MW – the company says this will be the largest wave-power plant in the world.

Not far up the coast, in Reedsport, OPT expects 10 PowerBuoys offshore. It’s currently waiting for all the necessary federal permits; if it actually happens, it will be the first such commercial wave power site on the West Coast.

OPT has been testing the PowerBuoy near Atlantic City for more than two years, but the energy produced is simply dissipated. (These are big machines – see the pic above.)

Wave power is simple, in theory, but really hard to pull off. Like windmills, these systems convert kinetic energy into electricity. As the tide and waves move, the PowerBuoys move up and down, generating power.

Tide power has some key advantages over other green energy concepts. The tides, they never stop, so there’s a seemingly infinite supply here, and it could be more consistent than wind power. Plus, the tide is everywhere, so tidal power systems could be installed in a wide variety of sites.

But the sea is a very tough environment. Water and salt don’t mix well with electricity, metal and electronics, and it’s tough to send out a maintenance crew. But OPT’s systems seem to be holding up over time, so maybe we’ll see more of these. In fact, despite these not-so-trivial challenges, the main hurdle may not be the technology, but the regulatory process (see Cape Wind).

A Modest Proposal

I have to give these guys plenty of credit for being bold.

As part of an effort to come up with a series of futuristic projects that could remake the world of tomorrow, researchers at the Japanese tech company Shimuzu Corp. have suggested turning the surface of the moon into a massive solar power plant.

Wow. That’s really all I have to say about that.

The idea behind the Luna Belt, as they call it, is to build a series of enormous solar arrays all the way around the moon’s equator, nearly 7,000 miles. It would initially be a few miles thick, and would eventually grow to as wide as 250 miles.

The power would be beamed back to Earth via lasers or microwave, and then converted into electricity.

And how would this enormous project be built, you might ask. Good question. Shimuzu says that much of it could be constructed using the rocks and dust found on the moon, including cement, bricks and glass fibers, and most of the work could be handled by robots. Shimuzu even says it can combine hydrogen with moon dust to generate water (but it’s BYOH from home, unfortunately).

Modestly, the company says the idea will lead to “the infinite coexistence of mankind and the Earth.”