March 30, 2022
Australia

Serrated wind blades spark calls for wildlife protection tech

Group’s alarm at wind farm | Bronwyn Farr | The Cairns Post | 29 Mar 2022 |

Tablelands conservationists are horrified that the $370m Kaban wind farm will have serrated blades on its 28 turbines.

A spokeswoman for French renewable energy giant Neoen, which owns the wind farm under construction near Ravenshoe, confirmed the blades were serrated.

“The blades currently being installed at Kaban have serrations on the back side of the blade to minimise noise for the benefit of the local community and surrounding fauna,” the spokeswoman said.

Rainforest Reserves Australia spokeswoman Carolyn Emms called on the company to spend money on technology that could mitigate against bird and bat deaths.

“At Kaban, sadly, these start-of-the-art technologies will not be employed,” she said.

“Simply monitoring bird and bat deaths is not enough. “The proponent should redirect some of their profit toward deploying appropriate technology to prevent our bird and bat death,” Ms Ems said. As well as birds and bats being killed from turbines spinning at 300km/h, bats died from barotrauma – the shifting pressure around wind turbines, she said.

Ms Emms said birds and bats would also die from impact with the newly installed electrical power lines around the development.

Construction work is expected to continue to March 2023 and the project is expected to generate enough electricity to power 100,000 homes once completed, with a life of at least 30 years.

The Kaban wind turbines will be 228m high.

The wind turbines are currently being transported as oversized loads from Cairns to Ravenshoe between 2.30am and 4am.

Meanwhile, the proposed Chalumbin Wind Farm, 15km from Ravenshoe, has hit a stumbling block with the state government finding fault with its application.

The company Epuron has until May to provide more information.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2022/03/30/serrated-wind-blades-spark-calls-for-wildlife-protection-tech/