Resource Library Archive: November 2011
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.
Sierra Club et al. v. Kern County
Source: Sierra Club et al.
SIERRA CLUB, CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY and DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE (Petitioners and Plaintiffs will collectively be referred to as “Petitioners) petition this Court for a Writ of Mandate and Order under Code of Civil Procedure § 1094.5 and § 1085 and Public Resources Code §21168.5, directed to Respondents, COUNTY OF KERN and KERN COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, (collectively “Respondent” or “County”), setting aside Respondents’ certification of a Final Environmental Impact Report (“EIR”) that was prepared in conjunction with various actions and ultimate approval of North Sky River and Jawbone Wind Energy Projects (“Project”). Petitioners also seek an order directing the County to set aside all project approvals, resolutions, ordinances and findings and not to reconsider the project until and unless a legally adequate EIR is prepared and certified consistent with the mandates of the California Environmental Quality Act, otherwise referred to as CEQA, Through this action, Petitioners also seek a judicial declaration indicating that the County’s certification of the EIR and approval of the Project was unlawful. …
Petitioners are collectively opposed to this particular wind energy project … because of its unacceptable and inadequately mitigated impact on an important avian migratory corridor, and sensitive and protected bat and avian species, including the majestic Golden eagle and the extremely rare California condor.
Download original document: “Sierra Club et al. v. Kern County”
Etude de la mortalité des chiroptères
Source: AVES environnement
Parc éolien du Mas de Leuze Saint-Martin-de-Crau (nine 800-kW turbines, 48-m-diam blade area [1,810 m², 0.45 acre], 50 m hub ht)
103 chauves-souris ont été trouvées mortes ou blessées (2 individus) au cours des 56 contrôles réalisés, entre le 17 mars et le 27 novembre 2009, sous les neuf éoliennes du parc du Mas de Leuze.
D’après la formule adaptée de celle préconisée par Erickson et al. (2000), le nombre effectif de victimes, calculée sur la base des 103 chauves-souris trouvées entre le 17 mars et le 27 novembre 2009 et en tenant compte des différents facteurs de correction, est estimé à 714 chauves-souris (tableau 5), ce qui correspond à un taux de mortalité de 79,3 individus par éolienne et par an.
(79.3 bats killed per turbine per year)
Etude de la mortalité des chiroptères
Post-construction mortality surveys at Pennsylvania wind turbines
Source: Pennsylvania Game Commission
As of June 30, 2010, voluntary surveys by the companies owning 83% of the installed wind power capacity (or 79% of total number of turbines) in Pennsylvania reported an annual average of 24.6 bats, ranging from 6.8 to 42.7 (or 3.2 to 21.5 per megawatt), and 3.9 birds, ranging from 1.7 to 9.8 (or 0.7 to 5.0 per megawatt), killed per turbine.
Extrapolated to all 420 turbines, representing an installed capacity of 748 megawatts — and remembering that these are reports from the companies themselves, not independent or peer-reviewed surveys — that comes to more than 10,300 bats and more than 1,600 birds killed by wind turbines in Pennsylvania last year.
Download original document: “Post-construction mortality surveys at Pennsylvania wind turbines”
Economic Importance of Bats in Agriculture
Source: Boyles, Justin; Cryan, Paul; McCracken, Gary; and Kunz, Thomas
[abstract]
White-nose syndrome (WNS) and the increased development of wind-power facilities are threatening populations of insectivorous bats in North America. Bats are voracious predators of nocturnal insects, including many crop and forest pests. We present here analyses suggesting that loss of bats in North America could lead to agricultural losses estimated at more than $3.7 billion/year. Urgent efforts are needed to educate the public and policy-makers about the ecological and economic importance of insectivorous bats and to provide practical conservation solutions.
Science 1 April 2011: Vol. 332 no. 6025 pp. 41-42
Justin G. Boyles*
Paul M. Cryan†
Gary F. McCracken‡
Thomas H. Kunz§
*Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa.
†U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center, Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA.
‡Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
§Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology, Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Download original document: “Economic Importance of Bats in Agriculture”
