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How do I survey a Windfarm? (1 Viewer)

Keith Glasgow

Well-known member
How do other people survey Windfarms in their areas, to assess the number of kills? Do most Windfarm companies own the mountain where the Windfarm is, or do they rent it? - Is access difficult? - do Windfarm engineers take a dim view of tresspassers looking for casulties? Are casulties usually found directly under the blades, or are they thown clear of the immediate area?

I've searched through a number of posts relevant to Windfarms, and I can't seem to find the answers (though I've maybe missed them - apologies) - Can anyone put me in the right direction?

thanks,
Keith.
 
Hi Keith, i can't point you in any offical direction but i often survey / look around for bladekill at a local windfarm at Blood Hills (no giggling at the back please) near Hemsby. Admittedly i only use my bino's, as the turbines are close enough to the road, and i've never run across the field to check the casualty figures but i have never seen a single dead or obviously-injured bird there.

So either some little fella comes round and clears them up at regular intervals, or...
 
To answer your questions directly "[A]Do most Windfarm companies own the mountain where the Windfarm is, or do they rent it? - Is access difficult? - [C]do Windfarm engineers take a dim view of tresspassers looking for casulties? [D]Are casulties usually found directly under the blades, or are they thown clear of the immediate area? "

A - don't know (this is the official website but it doesn't say). B - no, there isn't even a fence around it. C - i would have thought so. D - i have never found one.
 
Thanks for taking the time to reply - I think I'll pop up and have a search some of these days - If I'm apprehended, I suppose forgiveness is sometimes easier obtained than permission,

thanks,
Keith.
 
I used to survey an offshore windfarm site and it came to light that direct blade strikes were very low in number (from previous research) and that the highest causes of death in this form were upon large raptors passing through massive windfarms on migration bottlenecks such as altamont pass, california and in southern Spain (the name escapes me at the moment). You are unlikely to find victims of windfarm strikes because they will quickly become carrion and even if the bodies are still visible the cause of death may not be evident. I believe using radar and turbine mounted cameras not a single strike was recorded in the danish studies upon which a lot of the research has been based. The other key problems which were observed were displacement of birds from an area, excess stress on the birds as longer flightpaths were required - common scoter changed there flightpath up to 2km from the windfarm zone.
 
highest causes of death in this form were upon large raptors passing through massive windfarms on migration bottlenecks such as altamont pass, california and in southern Spain

I think its probably quite difficult to assess raptor deaths at individual wind tubine sites. I drove thru Altamont pass a couple of weeks ago and its quite a different situation than you would find in the UK. For a start there are close to 5,000 wind turbines in one location, I think the figure for the UK is closer to 2,000 across the whole country. Also as mentioned its a pass between the Bay area and the central valley and as such is used by birds and humans in their travels. Its also on the Pacific flyway and gives access to the coast ranges which I would imagine are good thermals if you wanted to cruise down the California coast. Also the turbines there are smaller, closer to the ground and the blades turn a lot faster than the ones i've seen in the UK. Despite the turbines and obviously the birds that do die their, there seemed to be far more raptors flying about than you would see in the Uk. That may be due to the generally environment friendly policies in California and the large number of reserves, parks, wilderness areas etc.
 
I used to survey an offshore windfarm site and it came to light that direct blade strikes were very low in number (from previous research) and that the highest causes of death in this form were upon large raptors passing through massive windfarms on migration bottlenecks such as altamont pass, california and in southern Spain (the name escapes me at the moment). You are unlikely to find victims of windfarm strikes because they will quickly become carrion and even if the bodies are still visible the cause of death may not be evident. I believe using radar and turbine mounted cameras not a single strike was recorded in the danish studies upon which a lot of the research has been based. The other key problems which were observed were displacement of birds from an area, excess stress on the birds as longer flightpaths were required - common scoter changed there flightpath up to 2km from the windfarm zone.

I know a fella who surveys onshore windfarms in eastern England, and asked him whether there were many kills. His answer was "oh yeah".

I'm not sure of the exact methodology.
 
I know a fella who surveys onshore windfarms in eastern England, and asked him whether there were many kills. His answer was "oh yeah".

I'm not sure of the exact methodology.

I had a feeling that onshore windfarms had higher levels of mortality but apart from the tarifa and altamont pass investigations I couldnt remember any details.
 
Who is swimming around beneath the offshore variety collecting corpses for a comparison?

Nobody but using radar and video cameras the danish study came up with no blade hits offshore. The size of the windfarm is going to influence the number of blade hits as small windfarms are easy to fly round wheras larger ones need traversing through.
 
Just to add: sometimes, the blade strike isn't as important as the pressure drop behind the blades. Scientific American, I think, had a good article on bats dying from burst lungs rather than strikes. The pressure drop behind the blades sucked the air out of them (that would literally suck, wouldn't it?).
 
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