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Resource Documents: U.S. (172 items)
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Ultrasonic deterrents provide no additional benefit over curtailment in reducing bat fatalities
Author: Clerc, Jeff; et al.
Abstract. Wind energy is important for achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions but also contributes to global bat mortality. Current strategies to minimize bat mortality due to collision with wind-turbine blades fall broadly into two categories: curtailment (limiting turbine operation during high-risk periods) and deterrence (discouraging bat activity near turbines). Recently, there has been interest in combining these strategies to achieve greater reductions in bat fatalities than either strategy might achieve in isolation. To investigate the effectiveness of combining curtailment with . . .
More »Estimated golden eagle mortality from wind turbines in the western United States
Author: Gedir, Jay; et al.
Abstract: Wind power is increasingly meeting global renewable energy demands; however, more turbines leads to increased bird-turbine collisions, particularly raptors, which can negatively impact populations. We estimated annual turbine mortalities of the federally-protected golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) in the western United States (2013–2024) with a Bayesian collision risk model (CRM). We used eBird relative abundance data to predict areas where golden eagles are at lower or higher risk of turbine collisions and turbine data from the U.S. Geological Survey U.S. . . .
More »Budgetary Cost of the Inflation Reduction Act’s Energy Subsidies
Author: Fisher, Travis; and Loucks, Joshua
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) became law on August 16, 2022. Despite its name, the act was mostly designed to decarbonize the US economy by providing subsidies to producers of clean energy and consumers of low-carbon-emitting preferred products such as electric vehicles. A contentious point of debate surrounding the passage of the IRA was its budgetary impact—how much liability American taxpayers would have to take on to subsidize clean energy. Various governmental and nongovernmental organizations estimated fiscal costs that turned . . .
More »Operational wind plants increase planetary boundary layer height: An observational study
Author: Abraham, Aliza; et al.
These findings provide strong evidence that wind plants can modify the planetary boundary layer in their surrounding area … [T]his study corroborates the hypothesis that wind plants interact with the atmosphere to affect local climatology. Abstract. As wind energy deployment grows, interactions between wind plants and the surrounding environment become more prevalent. The current investigation seeks to understand these interactions by characterizing the impact of wind plants on the planetary boundary layer height (PBLH), utilizing observations from the American WAKE ExperimeNt . . .
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