The Cape Wind Project at the Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts’s is threatened with the possibility of never even getting started due to the worry of it impacting the local Eider population. Some folks are worried that the Eiders might crash into the fast spinning blades of the planned 130 turbine array and cause a lot of bird deaths.
In order to soothe ruffled feathers (pardon the pun), they are implementing an infrared triggered recording device that will monitor birds approaching a turbine and record if in fact they have hit the turbine accidentally.
This system has already been used in Denmark as part of a $15million study to monitor whether birds are at risk when flying near wind farms. So far the results have been positive as they have recorded only minimal collisions and that majority of the birds have avoided the massive wind generators.
This reminds me of a story. In fact one of the most popular stories in manufacturing lore. They say it’s a true story and happened at the Shiseido Factory. One day a customer found out that the soap box he/she bought had no soap in it. Of course the customer returned it to the store and the news of the soapbox having no soap in it ended with the company trying to devise a way to detect soap boxes in the assembly line which had no soap in it.
A lot of engineers spent time and money applying the latest technologies (x-ray and what nots) in the machine the would hopefully detect a soapbox in the assembly line which had no soap in it. Upon seeing this machine, one of the old folks working on the assembly line went out to an old storeroom and got a big industrial fan, pointed it at the assemblyline and turned it on. The result being all those boxes without and soap in it flew out of the assemblyline. Of course the moral of the story for manufacturing blokes is that the person who most likely has the simplest solution to the problem is closest to it.
How does this relate to this article? Well the similarity I see is not in looking for the closest person to the source to solve the problem, but rather, aren’t we over engineering too much the process without actually creating a solution to the problem? Like why can’t we just paint the fan blades in the correct color and pattern that will make their blades appear visible enough to the birds even with it spinning very fast?
Article here
Category: Wind
February 13th, 2007 at 6:00 am
Location, location, location…
Mass Audubon on Feb. 23, 2005, wrote to Army Corps of Engineers on Cape Wind:
“By utilizing other bird mortality data provided in the (Draft Environmental Impact Statement), Mass Audubon staff scientists arrived at avian mortalities that ranged from 2,300 to 6,600 collision deaths per year.”
How does one “mitigate” the deaths of up to 6,600 birds, annually, in this flyway, Nantucket Sound, with documented federally protected endangered species present? California courts have established the fine for the death of one endangered Golden Eagle by a wind tower as $500,000.
American Bird Conservancy, ABC: “Sites requiring special scrutiny include sites that are frequented by federally listed endangered species of birds and bats, in known bird migration pathways, areas where birds are highly concentrated, and areas that have landscape features known to attract large numbers of raptors.”
Greenpeace: “Greenpeace opposes building wind farms on sensitive bird habitat, however, properly sited modern wind turbines in Australia carry a very low risk to birds.”
The Department of the Interior and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, lead federal regulatory reviewing agencies for Cape Wind, issued guidelines for siting wind towers in 2003:
“–Avoid placing turbines in documented locations of any species of wildlife, fish, or plant protected under the ESA.”
The Sierra Club:
“NOT APPROPRIATE SITES The Sierra Club will usually oppose wind development in areas that are Not Appropriate (all the categories below include prior-designated or prior-proposed areas): Critical habitat for Rare, Threatened or Endangered Species or habitat for indigenous species critical to a region or state’s biodiversity”
MA Audubon:
http://www.massaudubon.org/news/index.php?id=92&type=news) “Unless it can be shown that the construction and operation of wind turbines would not significantly lower the habitat value or pose undue mortality risks for wildlife at a proposed site, we recommend, that wind energy facilities avoid…[among other locations] “Sites documented as important habitat for state and federally listed endangered species…”)
Mass Audubon comment to the USACE on the DEIS Cape Wind:
“This area of Nantucket Sound is within the eastern U.S. migratory bird flyway and hosts high concentrations of wintering waterfowl, and is in close proximity to nesting, foraging and staging areas for federally endangered roseate terns and threatened piping plovers. Substantial numbers of federally endangered sea turtles and protected marine mammal species frequent the proposed project site. In addition, the proposed site provides habitat for federally regulated finfish and shellfish populations.” http://www.massaudubon.org/PDF/CapeWindDEIS.pdf
We should observe wind industry expert experience and warnings:
Henning Grastrup, the offshore pioneer and key figure in the Danish government’s first programme for wind energy research, retired after 31 years with Danish utility Elsam was recently interviewed regarding wind energy.
“What lessons have we learned in planning the Horns Rev project, Henning?”
“I think the most important lesson is that if there are concerns about bird restrictions from the European Commission, for instance, they should be taken seriously because they will not go away. I have seen some international projects failing to make progress because the warnings were not taken seriously.”
California A.G. Bill Locklear has responded regarding the legal implications of the deaths of thousands of birds in a flyway with endangered species present at the Altamont Pass, CA. wind resource area:
Bill Lockyer, A.G. of CA to the Almeda County Board of Supervisors in his letter of July 6, 2005:
“The ongoing harm to protected bird species at the APWRA is serious and unacceptable.” “Because the APWA is the largest of its kind in the world, what happens here could set an important precedent for how these issues are addressed elsewhere in California and the United States.”
Hopefully, we will not allow Cape Wind to be constructed in an endangered species habitat, and major flyway, Nantucket Sound, (a site selected by the developer as we have not yet zoned the Outer Continental Shelf). All we need to do is to observe wind tower siting guidelines to avoid another Atamont, CA.
Cape Wind as proposed for Nantucket Sound would give the wind industry in the U.S. a black eye.
Location, location, location
February 13th, 2007 at 10:13 am
http://www.stopillwind.org/downloads/LessForMore.pdf