Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
It seems reasonable to assume that other forms of electricity generation will
result in deleterious effects on some birds. This could be due to direct and indirect
effects of toxic and thermal emissions and collisions with tall, lit power station
structures and transmission lines, or to habitat loss for open cut coal mines and
power station infrastructure. It would thus be informative to obtain some idea of the
extentofsuchpossibleeffects.InSeptember2012Ididaninternetsearchusingthe
terms
'bird, impact, electricity, generation'
(note there was no reference to
'wind'
,
'renewable'
, etc.). In 500 returns there was not one for a non-renewable form of
energy generation and virtually all related to possible effects of wind energy.
A comparison of wind energy with non-renewable energy sources in the United
States has been attempted by Sovacool (
2009
). He suggested there were 0.3-0.4
bird deaths per gigawatt-hour of electricity generated from wind power compared to
5.2 bird deaths per gigawatt-hour generated from fossil-fuel. However, the author
acknowledged that his appraisal had a number of limitations due to small sample
sizes in published studies and a general lack of quantified information for various
sources of bird mortality.
In Australia the only other sector I am aware of that routinely quantifies fauna
collisions is the aviation industry. This is primarily related to maintaining human
safety.Butwhilethereportedincidentsallowustoconsiderthenumbersofreported
fauna deaths due to aircraft, it is also interesting to consider perceptions of this rela-
tive to fauna collisions at wind farms.
TheAustralian Transport Safety Bureau publishes an annual report on animal
strikeswithalltypesofaircraftandin2012theyprovidedareviewofstatisticsfor
the10yearperiod2002-2011(AustralianTransportSafetyBureau
2012
).
TheAustralianTransportSafetyInvestigationRegulations2003statethatmat-
tersreportabletotheAustralianTransportSafetyBureauincludeacollisionwithan
animal, including a bird, for:
• All air transport operations (all bird and animal strikes); and
• Aircraft operations other than air transport operations when the strike occurs on
a licensed aerodrome.
Inthe10yearsbetween2002and2011therewere12,790reportedfaunastrikes
on aircraft. The majority of these involved birds and bats. There was a clear trend of
increasingnumberofcollisionsandtheyhavemorethandoubledfrom780in2002
to1,758in2012.Highcapacitycommercialairlinersaccountedforboththehighest
proportion of collisions and the greatest increase in their number.
Whilst efforts are made at some airports to identify taxa involved in aviation col-
lisions(e.g.MelbourneAirport,W.Steelepers.comm.June2013),theAustralian
TransportSafetyBureau(
2012
) report indicates that very many birds and bats killed
by aircraft are not identified to species level. For instance it reports that over the
10yearperiod'eagles'involvedincollisionsincluded10'seaeagles',eightbrah-
miny kites, two little eagles, 24 wedge-tailed eagles and “70 eagles (not wedge-
tail)”. In terms of numbers of other bird and bat groups that collided with aircraft, a
smallselectionincludes302'hawks';65'falcons';644'kites';767'lyingfoxes/
bats';and,237'curlew/sandpipers'.The132pagereportmakesnomentionofthe
conservation status of any species nor any reference to effects on species or
