The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has called for a significant increase in the number of wind farms in the UK, after a new study found far more turbines could be built onshore without harming wildlife.

The RSPB has campaigned against wind farms in the past, because of the potential threat to birds, and helped prevent the biggest onshore wind farm in Europe being built on the Isle of Lewis because of the risk to sea eagles.

However, a new study, commissioned by the organisation and written by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), has found wind farms pose no threat to birds and other animals if they are put up in the right area.

Experts at the charity said that, in addition to this, they would support the development of more wind farms because of the “truly terrifying” impact that global warming was having on birds. Ruth Davis, head of climate change policy at the charity, stressed that there was an urgent need to significantly increase sources of renewable energy to tackle greenhouse gas emissions. “Left unchecked, climate change threatens many species with extinction.” She said.

The study also revealed that the UK is trailing behind the rest Europe in building wind farms because of its bureacratic planning process, despite having abundant natural wind resources. Wind turbines generated just 2% of the UK’s energy in 2007, compared with 29% in Denmark, 20% in Spain and 15% in Germany.

Ruth Davis said: “We need a clear lead from government on where wind farms should be built and clear guidance for local councils on how to deal with applications. We must reduce the many needless delays that beset wind farm developments”.

“This report shows that if we get it right, the UK can produce huge amounts of clean energy without time-consuming conflicts and harm to our wildlife. Get it wrong and people may reject wind power. That would be disastrous.”

Read more about this story on the BBC News website and the Telegraph News Website

More information can be found on the RSPB wesite

The Welsh Government yesterday granted assent for the development of Wales’ largest wind farm – and the second largest in the world – off the North coast of the country. When complete, in 2014, and fully operational, the wind turbines will supply electricity for 700,000 homes.

The wind farm, at Gwent y Môr, will be built by NPower Renewables and will generate 750MW of ‘clean’ energy. The approval brings Wales a step closer to meeting its ambitious target, announced by Jane Davidson, Environment Minister, in February: to supply all of Wales’ electricity from green, ‘clean’ sources by 2025. Electricity generation accounts for 30% of Wales’ carbon emissions.

The UK is the world’s leader in generating power from offshore wind farms, with a total offshore built capacity of 590MW at present. The proposed ‘London Array’ in the outer Thames Estuary, which would generate 1GW of power.

The announcement from Wales follows Tuesday’s ‘plugging in’ of the largest wind farm in Europe into the Portuguese National Grid. The development, in the Upper Minho region of Portugal will provide 1% of the country’s total energy and will supply electricity for over 1 million residents.

See original article in the Guardian, 4 December 2008: Go-ahead for wind farm puts Wales on track to meet clean energy targets

New research published in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology suggests the impact of wind farms on farmland birds is less serious than previously thought.

Dr Mark Whittingham and co-authors focused their study on farmland birds overwintering in East Anglia, in early 2007. The birds were allocated to functional groups (that is, grouped alongside birds with similar ecological requirements and taxonomic characteristics).

The researchers found no effect of proximity to wind turbines on grain-eating birds, corvids (crows), gamebirds and the skylark. However, the researchers found pheasants, which are widespread across Britain, to be more abundant further away from the wind turbines. Importantly, among the 33 bird species recorded (of which five are red-listed), wind farms were not found to be a threat.

In order to meet growing energy demands and combat climate change, wind farms are one of a suite of potential alternative energy options that could contribute to a shift from our present fossil-fuel dependency. The European Commission has set a target of creating 20% of EU Energy from renewable sources by 2020, and farmland, as the most abundant land cover in Europe is the most likely place to put them. Future EU policy calling for more wind farms on farmland should not be incompatible with existing EU policy (Agri-Environment Schemes) to increase biodiversity on farmland.

Dr. Whittingham said: “This is the first evidence suggesting that the present and future location of large numbers of wind turbines on European farmland is unlikely to have detrimental effects on farmland birds. This should be welcome news for nature conservationists, wind energy companies and policy makers.”

This article received extensive coverage in the media including:

The Today Show, Radio 4
and
The Telegraph

Reference: Claire L Devereux, Matthew J H Denny and Mark J Whittingham. Minimal effects of wind turbines on the distribution of wintering farmland birds. Journal of Applied Ecology, 2008; DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2008.01560.x