Resource Library Category: U.S.
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Documents presented here are not the product of nor are they necessarily endorsed by National Wind Watch. This resource library is provided to assist anyone wishing to research the issue of industrial wind power and the impacts of its development. The information should be evaluated by each reader to come to their own conclusions about the many areas of debate.
Resolution: Effects of Wind-Energy Facilities on Bats and Other Wildlife
Author: American Society of Mammalogists
WHEREAS, wildlife conservation and energy efficiency should be major considerations in the development of viable sources of alternative energy (Government Accountability Office 2003; Arnett et al. 2007; National Research Council 2007); and,
WHEREAS, wind turbines were once assumed to have no adverse environmental impacts, however, onshore wind-energy facilities have killed thousands of bats and birds (Government Accountability Office 2003; Kunz et al. 2007b; National Research Council 2007); and,
WHEREAS, onshore wind-turbine construction and associated infrastructure have pronounced effects on wildlife habitat (Government . . .
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Resolution on Bats and Wind Energy Development
Author: North American Symposium on Bat Research
Be it resolved on this 7th day of July, 2008, that members of the North American Symposium on Bat Research have expressed concern about fatalities of bats at utility-scale wind energy facilities in North America. Because bats have exceptionally low reproductive rates, making them susceptible to population declines and local extinctions, bat fatalities at wind facilities could pose biologically significant cumulative impacts for some species of bats unless solutions are found.
Worldwide, development of wind energy is projected to increase substantially . . .
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Preliminary Evaluation on the Use of Dogs to Recover Bat Fatalities at Wind Energy Facilities
Author: Arnett, Edward
Abstract. I assessed the ability of dog–handler teams to recover dead bats (Chiroptera) during fatality searches typically performed at wind energy facilities to determine fatality rates for birds and bats. I conducted this study at the Mountaineer and Meyersdale Wind Energy Centers in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, USA, respectively. Dogs found 71% of bats used during searcher-efficiency trials at Mountaineer and 81% of those at Meyersdale, compared to 42% and 14% for human searchers, respectively. Dogs and humans both found . . .
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Patterns of Bat Fatalities at Wind Energy Facilities in North America
Author: Arnett, Edward; et al.
ABSTRACT. Wind has become one of the fastest growing sources of renewable energy worldwide, but widespread and often extensive fatalities of bats have increased concern regarding the impacts of wind energy development on bats and other wildlife. We synthesized available information on patterns of bat fatalities from a review of 21 postconstruction fatality studies conducted at 19 facilities in 5 United States regions and one Canadian province. Dominance of migratory, foliage- and tree-roosting lasiurine species (e.g., hoary bat [Lasiurus cinereus]) . . .
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Accuracy of Model Predictions and the Effects of Atmospheric Stability on Wind Turbine Noise at the Maple Ridge Wind Power Facility, Lowville, NY
Author: Schneider, Clifford
The main objective of this study was to measure the noise levels at two sites within Atlantic Renewable Energy Corporation’s Maple Ridge Wind Power Project located in Lewis County, New York, and compare actual levels with the model predictions that were available in the preconstruction Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). The second objective was to examine atmospheric stability at Maple Ridge. Atmospheric stability was identified as a significant problem at a wind farm on the Dutch-German border. . . .
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Brownsille diary of industrial wind turbine noise
Author: Meyer family
Entries of a noise log kept by a Brownsville family who live 3/4 mile east of South Byron in Fond Du Lac County, Wisconsin. The diary begins on March 3, 2008. The new wind turbines had just gone on line there.
Download “Brownsville noise diary, March 3 to August 5, 2008″
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Ridgeville and Wilton, Wisconsin, Wind Ordinances
Author: Towns of Wilton and Ridgeville, Wisc.
H. Noise.
1. Audible Sound Limit.
a. No Wind Turbine or group of turbines shall be located so as to cause an exceedance of the pre-construction/operation background sound levels by more than 5 dBA or dBC. The background sound levels shall be the L90 dB sound descriptor (both A and C weighting) measured during a pre-construction noise study during the quietest time of evening or night. Measurements shall be for ten (10) minutes or more. L90 results are valid when L10 results . . .
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Permitting Setbacks for Wind Turbines in California and the Blade Throw Hazard
Author: Larwood, Scott
Prepared for the California Wind Energy Collaborative
By Scott Larwood, University of California, Davis
June 16, 2005
Download the paper.
Download the presentation.
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Save Western Ohio Q and A
Author: Stacy, Tom
Even in countries like Germany where wind power is fully deployed across the nation, its contribution to base load power – the part coal serves – is well under 10% of the power that wind supplies, which is about 25% of its rated capacity. That math leads you to wind power’s contribution to base load power at two and a half percent of rated capacity. So it takes forty gigawatts of installed windpower – 17,000 turbines to replace . . .
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Town of Magnolia (Wisc.) Wind Energy Systems Licensing Ordinance
Author: Town of Magnolia, Wisconsin
Download “Magnolia (Wisc.) Wind Energy Systems Licensing Ordinance”