What Is It Like to Live Next to a 136-Megawatt Wind Farm?
This article, “What Is It Like to Live Next to a 136-Megawatt Wind Farm?” is not too condemning of the experience. I would have preferred its section “The Bats and the Birds” to point out that birds are many thousands of times more likely to get killed by plate-glass windows, automobiles, and house cats — but overall, I think the author did a fine job.
Though perhaps a more interesting question is: Would you rather live next to a wind farm or a coal-fired power plant?
From David J.C. MacKay. Sustainable Energy – without the hot air.
UIT Cambridge, 2008. ISBN 978-0-9544529-3-3. Available free online from http://www.withouthotair.com.
(chapter 10) Offshore wind
“Costs to birds
Do windmills kill “huge numbers” of birds? Wind farms recently got adverse publicity from Norway, where the wind turbines on Smola, a set of islands off the north-west coast, killed 9 white-tailed eagles in 10 months.
I share the concern of BirdLife International for the welfare of rare birds.
But I think, as always, it’s important to do the numbers. It’s been estimated that 30 000 birds per year are killed by wind turbines in Denmark,where windmills generate 9% of the electricity. Horror! Ban windmills! We also learn, moreover, that traffic kills one million birds per year in Denmark. Thirty-times-greater horror! Thirty-times-greater incentive to ban cars! And in Britain, 55million birds per year are killed by cats …”