All human activity creates some form of impact on the natural environment. Many people consider global climate change to be the most serious threat to wildlife. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “the main projected biophysical effects (of global climate change) are … changes in natural ecosystems with detrimental effects on many organisms including migratory birds (IPCC, 2007)."
Wind power is one of the key solutions to mitigating this threat. Thus, large-scale wind power integration affects the natural environment in highly positive ways.
It is possible, however, that wind farms can have local effects on wildlife such as birds and bats. If sited without sufficient forethought to these potential effects, wind turbines can impact wildlife.
Vestas believes that proper siting is an essential tool in preventing problems before they arise. The wind industry has contributed widely to new research seeking to better understand potential negative effects on nature and to develop new knowledge to avoid them. Before and after assessments are important means to achieve this end as well as to helping to ensure a well-informed debate on these critical issues.
Governments and wind farm developers alike have a key responsibility to ensure proper siting with regard to wildlife (and other factors). As detailed in the Vestas policy on “Spatial Planning for Large-Scale Wind Power Integration” governments should identify appropriate areas, including from a wildlife perspective, for on- and offshore wind power developments.
Proper siting should result in preventing significant impacts on wildlife. A key criterion should be preventing unacceptable impacts on the overall wildlife population in question. For example, relatively few deaths among a rare bird population would have a greater impact than a larger number of deaths among an abundant population. In this context of environment impact assessments, wind farms are no different than other types of infrastructure projects, which often require such assessments. The goal is not necessarily to avoid all impacts but to ensure those impacts that do arise are acceptable relative to the benefits generated.
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