Spanish wind farms kill 6-18 million birds & bats a year

– Jan. 2012
Spanish Wind Farms Kill 6 - 8 Million Birds and Bats

Spanish wind farms kill 6-18 million birds & bats a year – Jan. 2012

On 12 January 2012, at the First Scientific Congress on Wind Energy and Wildlife Conservation in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, the Spanish Society of Ornithology (SEO/Birdlife) made public its estimate that, yearly, Spain’s 18,000 wind turbines may be killing 6 to 18 million birds and bats (1). The average per turbine comes down to 333 – 1,000 deaths annually, which is a far cry from the 2 – 4 birds claimed by the American wind industry, or the 400,000 birds a year estimated by the American Bird Conservancy for the whole United States, which has about twice as many turbines as Spain.


Bats are included in the Birdlife estimate, comments Mark Duchamp, president of Save the Eagles International (STEI).  “Therefore, supposing for example that wind farms would kill twice as many bats as they do birds, the figures would be: 111 – 333 birds per turbine per year, and 222 – 666 bats per turbine/year. The mortality figures that were recorded in Germany and Sweden in the early nineties are not unusual after all”, he notes. Quoting from a California Energy Commission study: “In a summary of avian impacts at wind turbines by Benner et al. (1993) bird deaths per turbine per year were as high as 309 in Germany and 895 in Sweden.” (2)


Duchamp has always maintained that earlier studies, made when bird mortality at windfarms wasn’t such a hot potatoe, were more credible than recent ones. “It is a curious business where those consultants who find or predict the lowest mortality land all the contracts. This is what is being asked of them, and this is what they do. This unethical conduct has already condemned the Tasmanian Wedge-tailed eagle to extinction (3), and more recently the Golden Eagle in the United States (4). Another factor is the occultation of carcasses by windfarm employees, as may be seen in the SEO/Birdlife report.”  (5)


The report also stresses that even a small incremental mortality for bird species whose populations are not abundant may drive them to extinction. “This is what I have been claiming for years”, laments Mark, who has been banned from ornithology forums as an unwelcomed messenger of bad news. “I am now vindicated, but that won’t save the birds”, he says.


SEO/Birdlife puts the blame on poor-quality environmental studies. So did Duchamp, as early as 2004:
“ …(avian impact assessments)… are sometimes voluminous and obfuscating, sometimes short and to the point, but mendacious always , minimizing the avian impact. They serve the purpose that is assigned to them: permit the erection of windfarms where the promoters want them, regardless of bird activity in the area.” (6)


Mark has long been claiming that it was foolish to allow environmental impact assessments to be directed and controlled by wind farm developers. It now appears he was right. The question is, he concludes: “will this aberration be allowed to continue?”


Contacts:


Mark Duchamp  +34 693 643 736
President, Save the Eagles International
save.the.eagles@gmail.com


Juan Avalos Schlegel +34 639 30 26 19
Vice President, Save the Eagles International – Spain
el_aguilero@hotmail.com


References:


(1) – On SEO/Birdlife webpage:
http://www.seo.org/2012/01/12/seobirdlife-presenta-una-nueva-guia-para-l...

- In the media: http://www.abc.es/20120112/natural-biodiversidad/abci-parques-eolicos-av...


(2) – PIER Study of the California Energy Commission (2002).  See page 12, first paragraph – D. Sterner, for the California Energy Commision (Dec. 2002) A Roadmap for PIER Research on Avian Collisions with Wind Turbines in California. http://www.iberica2000.org/documents/EOLICA/REPORTS/Dave_Sterner_2002.pdf


(3) – Suspicious error by consultant condemns Tasmanian eagle to extinction      http://www.iberica2000.org/Es/Articulo.asp?Id=4382


(4) – The Golden Eagle in peril in the US    http://savetheeaglesinternational.org/?page_id=755


(5) – SEO/Birdlife report: http://www.seo.org/media/docs/Manual_molinos.pdf     see page 11 – 2)


(6) – Chilling Statistics    http://www.iberica2000.org/Es/Articulo.asp?Id=1875
 

5 Responses to “Spanish wind farms kill 6-18 million birds & bats a year – Jan. 2012”

Windfarms: bird mortality cover-up in the UK. (MEDIA RELEASE) by Mark Duchamp « Raptor Politics:

April 17, 2012 at 10:41 am

[...] (4) – SEO/Birdlife: 6 to 18 million dead birds and bats a year: http://savetheeaglesinternational.org/?page_id=770 [...]

Thankfully, the word is continuing to spread regarding the destructive nature of wind turbines. | Quixotes Last Stand:

July 2, 2012 at 1:14 am

[...] places its windfarms. – STEI http://savetheeaglesinternational.org/?page_id=947 (5) – 6-18 million birds and bats killed yearly by 18,000 wind turbines in Spain: [...]

Carta abierta al Señor Fernando Pizarro, alcalde de Plasencia « PLASENCIA LIBRE:

August 7, 2012 at 9:16 am

[...] – SEO/Birdlife: los molinos matan entre 6 y 18 millones de aves y murciélagos al año [...]

Carta abierta al Señor Fernando Pizarro, alcalde de Plasencia « PLASENCIA LIBRE:

August 7, 2012 at 9:16 am

[...] – SEO/Birdlife: los molinos matan entre 6 y 18 millones de aves y murciélagos al año [...]

Obama’s Wind Power a Lot of Hot Air at US Action News:

August 15, 2012 at 2:35 pm

[...] values, and forever changing the character of the area – these giant “Cuisanarts of the air” slaughter countless eagles, bats (already under serious threat from disease) and other magnificent flying creatures worldwide. [...]

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