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Wind Turbines Take Steep Toll¹ On Birds And Bats

Estimates by the Department of Energy indicate that in the United States alone, there will be more than 100,000 wind turbines by 2030.

John Anderson is policy director at the American Wind Energy Association. “As time goes on, I think you will see wind replacing older plants that are being taken offline, but we are really capturing the new installation market," he said. 

But wind energy developers, in California and West Virginia, are being sued by environmental groups. A growing number of groups contend that hundreds of thousands of birds and bats are being killed every year by wind turbines, mostly at night when bats and migratory² birds fly around mountain ridges³ where many wind farms are located. 

Kelly Fuller, with the American Bird Conservancy, said, “In 2009, an expert at the Fish and Wildlife Service estimated 440,000 birds were being killed by wind turbines a year. That was before we had more growth of the industry.”

West Virginia, in the eastern U.S., is a migratory corridor for birds. It's also an important habitat for bats -- millions of which have been dying from White Nose Syndrome⁴. The illness has brought some species to the brink⁵ of extinction⁶. Now they face another threat. This amateur video shows bats flying at sunset near wind turbines in West Virginia. 

Judy Rodd is director of Friends of Blackwater, a West Virginia conservation group. She says this cave, close to a wind farm, houses thousands of hibernating⁷ bats during the winter. “The first year, they found 430 dead bats and I think 50 dead birds in a very preliminary sketchy⁸ study. The expert that analyzed⁹ those numbers, Dr. Tom Kunz from Boston University, estimated that finding 430 dead bats meant that actually 10,000 bats had been killed in one year," she said. 

That's because the carcasses are scavenged by foxes, crows and other predators¹⁰. 

The U.S. government supports wind energy development to reduce the use of fossil fuels and to fight global warming. 

David Cottingham is senior adviser¹¹ at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He says the service does not have the authority to halt a wind project that's on a migratory path. “But we do have the authority to prosecute¹² them for violating the endangered species act," he said. 

Despite efforts to reduce wildlife collisions, no permanent solution has been found. The wind industry opposes shutting down or limiting turbine operations. 

Industry, government, and environmental experts agree that choosing different locations for wind farms could be a good solution. But often the best wind currents are found in the paths that migratory birds and bats have been using for millions of years.