Wind farms significantly impacting birdlife in South Africa

Daniel Puchert

Daniel Puchert

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Wind farms whacking wildlife in South Africa

A recent report on the bird fatalities caused by wind farms shows that the alternative energy source significantly impacts birdlife, with many plants failing to mitigate this, the Sunday Times reports.

The report, conducted by BirdLife South Africa across 33 of the 35 wind farms nationwide over eight years ending in 2023, found 2,444 dead birds from over 200 species.
 
Daniel Puchert said:
The report, conducted by BirdLife South Africa across 33 of the 35 wind farms nationwide over eight years ending in 2023, found 2,444 dead birds from over 200 species.
Click to expand...
So around 305 birds a year, across 33 wind farms so less than one dead bird found a month?

Do agree though that the two missing ones should be reporting and all of them should try to keep it as low as possible.
 
Slingshot said:
So each wind farm kills on average 9 birds per year.
How many birds are killed by cars per day? Or by pets?
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Worldwide stats is per turbine, not per farm. It's also almost 1 bird per gWh in the US, so in the US alone it's 200k to 1.2 million birds a year. But other than that it's still tiny compared to other sources
 
Daniel Puchert said:
Wind farms whacking wildlife in South Africa

A recent report on the bird fatalities caused by wind farms shows that the alternative energy source significantly impacts birdlife, with many plants failing to mitigate this, the Sunday Times reports.

The report, conducted by BirdLife South Africa across 33 of the 35 wind farms nationwide over eight years ending in 2023, found 2,444 dead birds from over 200 species.
Click to expand...
Wind farms have far less effect on bird populations than buildings or cats.
 
Slingshot said:
So each wind farm kills on average 9 birds per year.
How many birds are killed by cars per day? Or by pets?
Click to expand...
My Dachshund contributes significantly more :ROFL:

She is one evil snoot, she leaves dog pallets in her bowl and wait for the pigeons to eat it. She will do this for a while then when they are fat and lazy enough, she pulls an Assassins creed move on them that will boggle the mind.
 
"The bird spotters act as an early warning system, giving technicians time to halt the turbines’ rotation. The bird protection programme is known as shutdown on demand."

That is some serious dedication right there.
Looks like the concern is pretty much for large predatory species.
One wonders if longer distance millimetre wave radar detectors and some computer modelling can help out in future... doing this manually sounds like a mind-numbing job.

Jackal46 said:

Just saying... :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Jirre, Sky New AU suddenly caring about conservation is like Hannibal Lecter acting like he cares about vegan recipes.
Next they'll moan about wind farms stealing the poor children's innocence by not allowing them to fly a kite wherever they feel like.

It's all about perspective. Those who are truly concerned about the impact of energy generation on wildlife should go spend a few months in the highveld winter around Secunda, Bethal, Ermelo etc. when the air is cold and dense, then come back and report on their experiences. You don't have to worry about counting the skeletons, apart from pigeons and a few other small species there aren't any birds left.

Protip: Make sure to take cigarettes with you, you'll at least be breathing through a filter while stuck in that post-apocalyptic wasteland.
 
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