Unexpected Downside of Wind Power [wind turbines = bird cuisinarts]

Wired News | October 14, 2005

[SFC Chromey]

Can't really call the designers idiots. The blades have been there for over 20 years now. It is the eviro-idiots that you need to identify.

First off, with most of these studies the numbers the eviro-idiots tout are mostly made up. They are guessing that over half of the dead birds are actually dead birds!

Second, why wait twenty years? Why is it an issue now, but hasn't been for the last two decades?

This most important "bird-migration route" is naturally, the best place to turn wind power to electricity. Birds as any animal are going to go from one area to another in the easiest path. For a bird this means ysing the additional help of the drafts that they can use to glide over the hills from the Sacramento Valley to the SF Bay Area.

[pillbox_girl]

I've said it before whenever I see one of these "Windmills kill birds" threads. And I'll keep repeating it:

Every time you see enviromentalists complain about wind power and bird deaths, they always talk about Altamont. And they ignore every other wind farm.

The truth is, bird deaths from wind turbines are very uncommon. Most large scale wind farms don't have any bird strikes in any given year. But the environmentalists don't ever seem to mention that fact.

Altamont is an anomoly, and it's high bird mortality rate isn't all that difficult to figure out. The reasons for Altamont's high bird strike numbers are well researched and correctable. But the Environmentalists don't ever seem to mention those studies either.

No, the environmentalists just keep repeating their "Wind Turbines Kill Birds" mantra, and leave it at that. Facts would only "complicate" the issue.

The single biggest problem with Altamont was that it was started early on by people with more idealism than knowledge. Today we know a lot more about turbine and tower design and placement.

The biggest factor contributing to the huge statistical anomaly of bird kills at Altamont is the tower design. Almost all of the towers at Altamont are an old strut design like what you see supporting most high tension power lines (see note below). Most of the birds killed at Altamont are predatory raptors. This is because predatory birds like to use the horizontal tower struts as convenient perching places to look out for prey. This attracts them to the towers and increases their chances of being hit by the turbine blades or electrocuted by the transmission lines.

Modern turbine towers which are built of a single solid walled vertical column offer predatory birds no locations for perching, and have significantly lower rates of predatory bird kills (like near zero). If Altamont replaced its towers, particularly those towers nearest the predatory bird nesting locations, with larger turbines on solid column towers, the number of bird kills would be significantly reduced (and possibly almost eliminated).

Another lower cost option that works is painting large alternating black and white bands on the turbine blades. The birds see the black bands as flying objects and avoid the turbine blades altogether. Painting a single turbine blade black works almost as well.

Of course, these fixes still haven't been made at Altamont, and so the environmentalists continue to use the Altamont bird death anomaly to incorrectly predict dire consequences for birds at proposed modern wind farms around the world.

Note: As an aside, simple, stationary high tension power line towers kill many times more more birds each year than all the wind turbines combined

[John Jorsett]

Very interesting. Why haven't the Altamont wind turbine blades been painted, then? It sounds a lot cheaper than shutting them down for long periods as the article describes. Also, could the support structures simply be sheathed instead of replaced, or would that be more expensive?

[pillbox_girl]

Very interesting. Why haven't the Altamont wind turbine blades been painted, then? It sounds a lot cheaper than shutting them down for long periods as the article describes. Also, could the support structures simply be sheathed instead of replaced, or would that be more expensive?

Good question.

I suspect it comes from two factors:

1. The enviro-nitwits aren't about coming up with solutions, only new things to whine about. They concentrate their efforts on creating a new government permit and regulation system for Altamont (more government bureaucracy) as well as imposing "compensation" for bird mortalities (wealth redistribution). So it should be obvious they're all too busy to actually solve any problems.
2. The owners of Altamont probably aren't interested in the costs (however minimal) of doing any improvements. It is, after all, in the Peoples Glorious Workers Paradise Republic of Kalifornistan. They know that eventually the government will make the taxpayers foot the bill.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Miller said the Center for Biological Diversity successfully blocked a proposed wind farm in Southern California's Mojave Desert because it would have required building access roads in an area that is home to bighorn sheep.

I seriously doubt many bighorn sheep will be killed by vehicles and turbines. I wonder if ANY will die?

He also said the FPL's plan to shut down half of the Altamont turbines is not enough. His group supports the plan in the California Energy Commission's 2004 report, which recommended that the Altamont wind farm shut down completely during the winter. A partial shutdown "is going to do something, but it doesn't go far enough," Miller said.

Altamont's already making concessions to the Eco-Tyrants. What the hell does Miller want, bankruptcy??? Altamont could replace all its older models with newer, more bird-friendly ones, and I bet this Miller twit STILL won't be satisfied! As "fossil" fuels become more scarce (in relation to rising demand) over the coming decades and centuries, we are going to HAVE to build more wind farms, and, yes, we'll have to put up with some bird deaths, and a few Bighorn sheep may have to buy the farm. If you want more birds and sheep, breed them, start a farm, raise them for food and clothing uses! Got that, Miller???

[Chickensoup]

Wouldn't the birds evolve into birds who will avoid all wind turbines? I mean it IS survival of the fittest....

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

...meanwhile a 15,000 hectares forest fire is burning out of control in the next state...

...thanks to environMENTAL forestry policies that allowed dry fuel to pile up inside the forests...

[Sam Cree]

The diameter of the blade assembly on those things is something like 250 feet. So it won't be cheap or easy making screens to cover them. And making the screens fine enough to keep birds out on that scale has to cut way down on the airflow as well.

[skr]

Dead dinos are for recycling!

[pillbox_girl]

Altamont could replace all its older models with newer, more bird-friendly ones, and I bet this Miller twit STILL won't be satisfied!

Good point.

I wish I'd thought of it before so I could have included it in my earlier post on why Altamont hasn't made some simple changes to protect raptorial birds.

3. Altamont knows no matter what they do, it will never be enough to satisfy the environitwits. So why should they bother wasting money on it.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

As for the newer, bird-friendly wind turbines, the bird kills apparently are next-to-nothing, so if they replaced them all and Miller kept on bitching, I'd sue his @$$!

As for the old wind turbines, I would apply the freedom-friendly method of subsidizing a more rapid turnover to the bird-friendly ones than would otherwise take place.

[pillbox_girl]

As for the newer, bird-friendly wind turbines, the bird kills apparently are next-to-nothing, so if they replaced them all and Miller kept on bitching, I'd sue his @$$!

Here's the thing about the environitwits: They really don't want to actually do anything to reduce the bird kills. Or, if they do, it's really very far down on their list of priorities.

They are a lot more interested in getting unjust laws passed that require wind farms like altamont to pay "compensation" for any bird kills the environitwits claim they cause.

In other words, the liberal see this as just another opportunity to engage in "wealth redistribution", or more correctly, extortion.

One can only hope that the fight over wind energy will finally show the starry eyed environmentalist followers what sleazeballs their leaders are.