The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently published in the Federal Register voluntary interim guidelines to help energy companies avoid and minimize wildlife impacts from wind turbines.
These guidelines will help energy companies locate and design wind energy facilities in a manner that ensures protection of wildlife resources, while streamlining the site selection and facility design process and avoiding unanticipated conflicts after construction.
The guidelines focus on three key areas; the proper evaluation and selection of potential wind energy development sites, the proper location and design of turbines and associated structures within sites selected for development, and research and monitoring to identify and assess impacts to wildlife. The guidance is intended for land-based wind turbines and wind farms on all Federal, State, and private lands within the United States.
"Clean renewable energy is very important for America; however, improperly sited or designed wind energy facilities can adversely impact wildlife, especially birds and bats, and their habitats," said Service Director Steve Williams. "With voluntary cooperation from the wind industry in implementing these guidelines, we can avoid impacts to wildlife, streamline the environmental review process, and increase the availability of renewable energy resources."
The Service encourages immediate use of the guidelines by the wind energy industry and solicits comments on guideline effectiveness. The guidelines will be evaluated over a two-year period, and then modified as necessary based on their performance in the field and on the latest scientific and technical discoveries developed in coordination with industry, states, academic researchers, other federal agencies and the public.
Examples of the guidelines include avoiding the placement of turbines in documented locations of any species protected under the Federal Endangered Species Act; avoiding fragmentation of large, contiguous tracts habitat; using tubular supports with pointed tops to minimize bird perching; and avoiding solid red or pulsating red incandescent lights as they appear to attract night-migrating birds.
The Service created a Wind Turbine Siting Working Group in January 2002 to develop these guidelines, in response to the Secretary of the Interior
