Helping save bats from wind turbines

One of the negative aspects of generating electricity from wind is the unfortunate death of birds and bats.

A new study shows that turning off the blades during periods of low winds reduces bat deaths by 70 percent. It makes sense, because bats don't like to fly in heavy winds. At least around here, they like still nights.

The study, performed by Bats and Wind Energy Cooperative and the Pennsylvania Game Commission at Pennsylvania's Casselman wind farm, found that turbines that were not curtailed on low wind nights were as much as four times as likely to result in bat deaths.


Curtailing the turbines did not even result in a great loss of electricity generation. The full study (PDF) showed that if all 23 turbines had been shut down, it would have resulted in a 3 percent annual loss of electricity generation.


Of course, in a low-margin business like electricity generation, every percentage point counts. But it is important for renewable energy sources to show that they can be friendly to nature.

I would like to see a related study on how to reduce bird deaths from wind turbines.

America - the world's wind leader

Great news! The United States is now the leading producer of power from wind.

According to this article on Cleantechnica, America has surpassed Germany in this regard. The U.S. now produces enough wind power to offset the burning of 91 million barrels of oil a year.

U.S. wind power produces more than 21,000 megawatts annually, or enough to power about 5.5 million households.

Read more good news on wind power from the American Wind Energy Association.

"Whoo-hoo for wind," you say, "But how can I get in on the game?"

Well, you don't have to own acres of prairie to harness the wind, as this video shows.