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The
Danish wind tubine industry charged:
Killing rare and protected birds:
Wind turbines kill tens of thousands of protected
birds in the Altamont Pass near San Francisco. An environmental
group wants to take the case against NEG Micon, who produced
and own half of the 5400 wind turbines, to court.
According to Reuters, NEG Micon's managing director,
Torben Bjerre-Madsen, say that wind turbine birdstrikes and
kills are rare, when you compare with other constructions
in nature.
The charge and lawsuit is filed from the environmental
group "Center
for Biological Devirsity" in the USA, who claim that
the huge wind farm in the Altamon Pass near San Francisco,
has
killed nearly 1.200 eagles, raptors and other protected
birds of prey.
Recent research at APWRA (Altamont Pass Wind
Resource Area) determined that bird mortality has not lessened
over time, that the industry’s minimal mitigation measures
have been ineffective, and that the actual number of bird
deaths is likely 8 to 16 times the industry-reported number
of bird kills.
Danish NEG Micon own half of the 5.400 wind
turbines in the Altamont Pass in cooporation with the Florida
Power & Light Company.
The industry does nothing to prevent the
blood bath
Center for Biological Diversity claim that the
wind energy company have know for yearsthat the wind farms
are killing birds by the thousands.
- Wind industry have taken no meaningful steps
towards reducing or preventing the number of rare birds killed.
We do support the production of sustainable energy, but we
also believe that the industry must be accountable for damage
to nature, says Jeff Miller, spokesman for Center for Biological
Diversity according to Ritzaus News Bureau.
The wind industy must be careful
According to BioResource
Consultants, who monitors the wind industry's impact on wild
life in areas such as Altamont Pass, 1.189 birds got killed
in the Pass from may 1998 to may 2003
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BioResource investigator, Carl Thelander, says
that the wind industry ought to be careful, because some electric
companies in the US have been sued for far less than that
number of bird kills.
Apart from the approximately 1.200 protected
large birds of prey, the wind turbines are considered being
responsible for killing
45.000 other protected and non protected smaller birds
over the last couple of decades. Compared to the 57 million
birds killed on the american roads each year, the number might
seem insignificant. But cars do not kill the eagles, the raptors,
the owls and the protected bats.
The problem is far bigger
than claimed by the industry
From all over the industrial
world, the Association of Wind Turbine Neighbours recieves
more and more emails and letters from people who are concerned
about the wind turbines and bird strikes.
From United Kingdom, Germany and particularly
Spain, we get reports
of killings of the largest, rarest and most protected
birds in Europe. A spanish report even
claim, that the wind turbine industry is bending the facts
and telling half truths in order to avoid the public and authorities
to know about the blood bath.
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