Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Interference with hunting
In rural communities where locals have been hunting in the same general
areas for many years, a wind project's potential impacts on hunting can
also be a significant source of resistance. Bird hunting is a popular sport on
many rural lands. Hunting for deer, small mammals, and other wildlife is
also not uncommon on remote rural property.
Introducing large wind turbines onto land can limit its availability for
hunting for multiple reasons. Hunters themselves may face safety risks
when they are in close proximity to turbines and their supporting facilities.
Similarly, hunters' stray bullets can put wind farm employees at risk and
can damage project facilities. To the extent that the presence of turbines
drives wildlife out of an area, wind farms can also upset neighbors who feel
that introduction of turbines nearby has degraded hunting opportunities on
their land.
Wind energy leases can also sometimes conflict with existing hunting
leases on rural property. Some landowners lease their private land to third
parties for hunting as a way to generate some modest additional income.
For obvious reasons, the rights of developers under wind energy leases are
often at odds with lessees' rights under these hunting leases.
In an effort to address this problem, many wind energy leases include
provisions effectively prohibiting hunting activities on the project property,
and some require the lessor to represent that there are no hunting leases
affecting the land. When a proposed wind farm's land is already subject to
a hunting lease, the best option for a developer may be to simply “buy out”
the lease, paying a relatively small sum of money to the hunting lessee to
prematurely terminate the arrangement.
Fire-related risks
Finally, some neighbors may oppose a proposed wind farm because of
the increased fire risk it could bring to their community. From 2002 to
2010, more than 100 wind turbine fire accidents were reported across the
world, 113 and fires account for between 9 percent and 20 percent of wind
energy insurance claims. 114 According to one manufacturer of turbine
fire-suppression systems, the nacelle of a typical utility-scale wind turbine
contains up to 200 gallons of hydraulic fluid and lubricants that can quickly
ignite when a turbine catches fire.115 115 Many other components of the turbine
are also highly flammable. If such materials catch flame and fall to the
ground under dry conditions, they have the potential to start destructive
range and forest fires and threaten nearby homes and other property.
Turbine fires are most commonly ignited by lightning strikes, which is
hardly surprising given turbines' tall height and the fact that they tend to
be installed at a parcel's higher elevations so that they can capture the most
productive winds. 116 The materials used in turbines do not help matters,
 
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