Alternative Energy News has a great article about a company called Peñascal, a 202 MW wind farm in Texas, who wants “to become a model for responsible development by installing new radar technology to protect migratory birds and wildlife”. You see, wind farms kill about 7,000 birds a year and I’m inclined to agree with the view expressed in the article, which is that this number is underestimated. Peñascal will be using radar technology developed by Florida based DeTect, Inc.
From DeTect’s website, I garnered the following bit of information:
The MERLIN™ detect & deter bird control radar system is an advanced radar system designed to monitor user-defined bird and wildlife control zones, automatically activating bird deterrent devices to deter and harass birds entering restricted areas. The system is based on DeTect’s proven MERLIN Avian Radar System technology that is used by the USAF, NASA and airports worldwide to detect and monitor hazardous bird activity on and around airfields for bird-aircraft strike hazard management. MERLIN detect & deter Applications include control of birds at industrial waste impoundments, oil & gas drilling frac ponds, landfills, stormwater retention basins, crop fields and any site requires automated bird control.
I congratulate Penãscal for the concern with the birds. At the end of the day, our quest for clean energy is a quest to protect all life so every effort should be made to mitigate the impact that new technologies have on other living creatures.
Thank you for this article! I hadn’t considered the impact of wind farms on birds.
I think we might need to keep thinking of new innovative solutions to our energy problem that haven’t even been proposed yet. For example, a new generator has been invented in Tibet that converts energy expended from turning prayer wheels into electricity to power homes and street lights:
http://tinyurl.com/ppbn57
That is the kind of innovation I hope to see more of!
Thanks,
Dr. Deb
This kind of inovation is what we need to solve our energy crisis. Everyone working together will make solving problems much easier.
The fact that truths are difficult is no reason to choose unreality and polite functions as the tools to not address the real issues. Here are some facts that should be considered about expanding wind farms.
(1) the average annual wind speeds where Texas Wind farms are being constructed is only 12MPH. This causes windmills to only operate at 30% of their capacity. At a cost of at least $5M per windmill, 30% does not look like a good return on investment
(2) today’s wind farms have no energy storage systems therefore energy generated at the discretion of the wind is often not able to go onto the grid in peak demand periods
(3)Wind Farm owners receive a Federal a.k.a Taxpayer subsidy on net electricity production of $0.021 per kW hour. Across the USA this amounts to more than $1B being paid as subsidies to over 500 wind farms.
(4) in addition to subsidies ,Wind Farm owners have recently been granted an Accelerated Capital Equipment Tax Depreciation benefit that allows the Wind Farm cost to be written off over a 5 year period. In many cases Wind Farm owners can avoid paying Federal Income taxes for at least 5 year and keep the subsidy and revenues from selling electricity to power companies tax free
(5) a typical Wind Farm can easily cost over $700M and this could be invested in 24/7 sustainable energy sources like Natural Gas and Nuclear Energy Plants that are easily maintained and upgraded.
(6) after 5 years the windmill will be (a) out of warranty, (b) obsolete due to new technology, and (c) still being financed. Draw your own conclusions here and remember that Uncle Sam is broke
(7) Reporters and bloggers are so excited about the announcement of new Wind Farms that they report the Wind Farm using maximum capacity numbers. Like they will write that the Bla Bla Wind Farm has a capacity of 283MW/hour enough to power 100,000 homes. Looking at actual data logs in the Dept of Energy database this wind farm only generates an average of 86MW/hour. Since the average US household uses about 10MW of electricity/year the demand is for 1,000,000 MW and 86MW/h X 8760 hrs/yr=753,360MW not enough for the 100,000 homes for two reasons (a) 753,360 is < 1,000,000 and (b) the wind does not blow during all peak demand periods and wind power must be supplemented by fossil fuel generated electricity
It is important that we all get involved with the decisions that drive the energy direction of our country. Going in a direction that requires tens of thousands of remote acres populated with distributed networks of windmill towers with no energy storage systems spells . inefficiency, high cost, outrageous maintenance, and continued dependency of fossil fuels to make up the wind farm shortfalls. The debate on wind farms should not be held in the blogosphere but on 60 Minutes.