Skip to main content

UK Ecologist: 'Wind Farms Driving Birds, Bats to Extinction'

Support Provided By
869961524_570ed985ff_z-thumb-600x450-43173

This Scottish bat is threatened by wind energy development, says an Oxford biologist. | Photo: Lee Carson/Flickr/Creative Commons License

This hasn't been a great month so far for wind turbine fans in the United Kingdom. First, a report released just before New Years found that many wind turbines' effective lifespans are much shorter than expected. And this week, a respected British ecologist is slamming the wind industry, saying that wind power is "devastating populations of rare birds and bats across the world, driving some to the point of extinction."

In an essay that's getting some serious traction in environmentalist circles, Clive Hambler -- a lecturer at Oxford, and author of the Cambridge University Press text "Conservation" -- slams the wind industry in no uncertain terms, saying that the sector's support from environmentalists comes as a result of environmentalists being essentially ignorant of science:

The environmentalists who support such projects do so for ideological reasons. What few of them have in their heads, though, is the consolation of science.

Hambler cites some distressing statistics from sources around the world. Between 6-18 million birds and bats are killed by Spanish wind farms each year Hambler says, including 400 griffon vultures per year just at Navarro. German wind turbines kill at least 200,000 bats per year, depressing populations up to 2,000 miles away. Wind turbines in the U.S. have been estimated to kill 70 bats per installed megawatt per year, on average, says Hambler. That would work out to about 320,000 bats per year in California.

Hambler's assessment of the reasons for wind power's popularity among environmentalists is rather unsparing:

Why is the public not more aware of this carnage? First, because the wind industry (with the shameful complicity of some ornithological organisations) has gone to great trouble to cover it up -- to the extent of burying the corpses of victims. Second, because the ongoing obsession with climate change means that many environmentalists are turning a blind eye to the ecological costs of renewable energy. What they clearly don't appreciate -- for they know next to nothing about biology -- is that most of the species they claim are threatened by 'climate change' have already survived 10 to 20 ice ages, and sea-level rises far more dramatic than any we have experienced in recent millennia or expect in the next few centuries. Climate change won't drive those species to extinction; well-meaning environmentalists might.

Hambler's essay appeared in the British paper The Spectator in a week in which the wind industry was still reeling from a study conducted for the UK's Renewable Energy Foundation that suggests wind turbines in the UK and Denmark have a much shorter productive lifespan that expected. According to the study, which was conducted by researchers at Edinburgh University, many turbines have declined to around 70 percent of their rated output by the time they reach 10 years of service.

Though that study was characterized as misleading by wind energy advocates, it too has gotten some traction, and its defenders are citing California as a cautionary example -- though not without engaging in hyperbole. Murdo Fraser, a Conservative Member of the Parliament of Scotland, described California's desert as a sort of elephants' graveyard of wind turbines in a statement to the Scots newspaper the Courier:

"We already know that the average wind turbine must be in operation for a minimum of two years to pay back the carbon cost of construction," he said. "If the average lifespan of a wind turbine is only 10 years then the Scottish Government must seriously question wind energy's role in displacing carbon emissions. "However, the rapid wear and tear of wind turbines comes as no surprise. We need only cast our eye across the Atlantic to see 12,000 turbines rotting in the Californian desert.

California does have quite a few obsolete wind turbines, and not just in the desert, but their total is probably closer to 3,000 or 4,000.

ReWire is dedicated to covering renewable energy in California. Keep in touch by liking us on Facebook, and help shape our editorial direction by taking this quick survey here.

Support Provided By
Read More
A row of cows stands in individual cages along a line of light-colored enclosures, placed along a dirt path under a blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds.

A Battle Is Underway Over California’s Lucrative Dairy Biogas Market

California is considering changes to a program that has incentivized dairy biogas, to transform methane emissions into a source of natural gas. Neighbors are pushing for an end to the subsidies because of its impact on air quality and possible water pollution.
A Black woman with long, black brains wears a black Chicago Bulls windbreaker jacket with red and white stripes as she stands at the top of a short staircase in a housing complex and rests her left hand on the metal railing. She smiles slightly while looking directly at the camera.

Los Angeles County Is Testing AI's Ability To Prevent Homelessness

In order to prevent people from becoming homeless before it happens, Los Angeles County officials are using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to predict who in the county is most likely to lose their housing. They would then step in to help those people with their rent, utility bills, car payments and more so they don't become unhoused.
blue themed graphic including electric vehicles are charging stations, wind turbines and trees, 2023 in reference to year

A Look Back at Climate Solutions In 2023

The U.S. may have a long way to go in its decarbonization goals, but these stories show signs of progress in climate solutions.