Big California Wind Farm Wrestles with Bird Deaths
Date: 16-May-05
Country: USA
Author: Leonard Anderson
Wind companies like FPL Energy, wildlife groups and the US Fish and Wildlife Service are trying to agree on ways to lower the risk for birds flying into big spinning turbine blades at the 584-megawatt Altamont Pass wind center in rolling hills about 50 miles east of San Francisco.
Altamont Pass, which produces wind power for sale to Pacific Gas & Electric Co., a unit of PG&E Corp. is along a migratory path for raptors and near a nesting area for golden eagles.
One megawatt of wind energy can power about 250 to 300 homes with no emissions.
A study last year by the California Energy Commission estimated that up to 4,720 birds from 40 different species are killed each year at the wind farm, including as many as 1,300 protected raptors.
The yearly death toll includes more than 100 golden eagles plus red-tailed hawks, burrowing owls, kestrels, and meadowlarks, according to the Audubon Society.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California energy officials are pushing for more "clean" electricity supplies from wind, solar, biomass and other sources, aiming to produce 20 percent of the state's electricity from renewable sources by 2010.
HEARING ON PERMITS
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors will hold a hearing June 2 on renewal of operating permits for Altamont Pass developers.
Wildlife and environmental groups like the Audubon Society and the Sierra Club are challenging the permits and want an environmental review of Altamont Pass and the wind industry to take steps to reduce the bird kills.
FPL Energy, which produces about half the power at Altamont Pass, proposes measures to achieve a 35 percent reduction in kills in three years by removing and relocating older high-risk turbines and upgrading power poles to prevent bird electrocutions, among other steps.
For the longer term, "repowering" the site with new turbines that may operate at heights above flight paths of many birds could prevent kills, said Diane Fellman, FPL Energy's regulatory affairs director in California.
Altamont Pass also could shut down half its turbines during a four-month winter season when electricity demand is lower and reduce the population of gophers, rabbits and other prey, developers said.
Wildlife advocates, however, are pressing for a larger reduction in bird deaths by removing the deadliest turbines and closing all wind generation for the four winter months, said Arthur Feinstein, Audubon Society conservation director.
"No one is proposing to shut down the wind industry at Altamont Pass," Feinstein said.
The California Energy Commission study said Altamont Pass may be able to cut bird kills by up to 50 percent for some species by moving turbines and installing structures to divert birds to fly around turbines.