Harnessing wind power involves many factors that can affect the siting of wind energy facilities, including potential adverse effects on wildlife. These potential wildlife impacts are primarily associated with habitat disruption and mortality of birds and bats due to turbine strikes. Impacts on wildlife are most readily assessed by simple enumeration of the incidents of wildlife encounters over time. While such an approach provides context on individuals lost or injured, more is needed to determine the broader impact to wildlife populations across appropriate landscape scales.
At the April 2010 Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry regional Chesapeake-Potomac meeting, Integral ecologist Matthew Behum presented a new approach for estimating risks to wildlife that transcends traditional field observations while extrapolating data to population-level endpoints. Risk can be estimated more accurately with the addition of GIS modeling through habitat patch analysis and encounter modeling aimed at quantifying preferred receptor habitat and affected areas in a 3-D format. Population modeling can be used to extrapolate mortality and reproductive data to key population-level endpoints including estimates of risk of population decline.
These tools can assist in land management decisions and community outreach by providing both concrete risk estimates and visual presentation materials that resonate with the general public. Integral’s development of new tools to estimate wildlife risk from wind turbines can support the U.S. Department of Energy’s overall goal of 20 percent of American energy production resulting from wind power sources by 2030.
For more information on this topic, please contact Matthew Behum at mbehum@integral-corp.com.