24 August 2023
Online
For our next Energy & Nature webinar, we discussed the issue of bat mortality around onshore wind farms and focussed on the solutions to reduce the risk for the populations while ensuring energy supply coming from renewables, essential to tackle the climate crisis.
Introduction
Bats are already highly threatened in Europe and play a significant role in many ecosystems. Therefore, the additional impact of wind turbines can pose a real threat to certain species. Yet little is known about this worldwide issue and the factors causing mortality across wind energy facilities.
Fatalities are due to two main causes: direct collision with the wind turbine blades or barotrauma – fatal injuries that occur when a bat encounters sudden and extreme changes in atmospheric pressure near rotating blades.
Thankfully, solutions exist, such as:
01
Proper planning and Environmental Impact Assessments run by ecologists in order to identify high-risk areas for bats and help ensure safer siting of wind farms;
02
Use of tools to calculate the optimal shutdown times for turbines during periods of high bat activity on operating wind farms;
03
Improve practices through collaborations between all key stakeholders and share knowledge to replicate actions.
Want to learn more about the topic and the good practices out there? Watch the recording of our webinar!
Event Speakers
Herman Limpens
Senior scientist | the Dutch Mammal Society
Herman opened the webinar by exposing the issue of bat mortality around onshore wind farms in Europe and presented their collaborative work with the Dutch wind industry and authorities.
Élise Drouet
Ecological engineer | H2air, French wind developer
Élise presented the work of H2air to protect bats in case of identified risk and what are the physical and regulatory challenges to implement solutions as a wind developer.
Dr. Simon Ghanem
environmental consultant | KS Umweltgutachten GmbH and KJM Conseil (French branch)
Dr. Simon introduced Probat – a freely available tool used in Germany on operating wind farms that calculates turbine specific shutdowns for a bat-friendly operation of the turbines.
session Recording
contact
Manon Thiel (Quetstroey)
manon[at]renewables-grid.euManager – Energy and Nature
Manon Thiel (Quetstroey)
manon[at]renewables-grid.euManager – Energy and Nature
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