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Offshore wind farms ‘deadly’ to Scottish birds
Credit: By ANDREW WHITAKER | The Scotsman | 10 October 2014 | www.scotsman.com ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
A controversial decision to approve four offshore wind farms could make Scotland’s waters some of “the most deadly for birds anywhere in the world” the UK’s largest nature conservation charity has warned.
Seabirds could be slaughtered in collisions with turbines and lose feeding areas after ministers approved the wind farms as part of the SNP government’s flagship policy of promoting renewable energy, RSPB Scotland said.
Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said the developments in the Forth and Tay region – Neart Na Gaoithe, Inch Cape Offshore Limited, Seagreen Alpha and Seagreen Bravo would provide enough energy to power over 1.4 million Scottish homes.
However, RSPB Scotland said the scheme could threaten part of the country’s seabird populations such as the Bass Rock gannet colony off the coast of North Berwick as well as kittiwake and puffins breeding on the Isle of May.
The charity warned that thousands of the species could be killed off every summer due to the loss of “important feeding areas”, that would be wiped out with the building of the wind farms.
Ministers were also warned about a “great uncertainty over the predicted impacts of collisions of seabirds with turbines” as well as the displacement of colonies of seabirds.
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