Wind farm ecologist defends bird safety

Updated April 24, 2012 08:57:54

An ecologist says there is no evidence wind farms are threatening the future of native bird populations.

A dead wedge-tailed eagle has been found not far from the base of a wind turbine at the Waterloo wind farm in the mid-north of South Australia.

Dr Cindy Hull, who works for renewable energy producer Hydro Tasmania, says some birds fly into blades but wind farms do not affect habitats or migration patterns.

"There's been a lot of work trying to assess whether it's impacting on the fate of the species and it isn't," she said.

"The wind industry is actually the only electricity generators that monitor their impact on wildlife, no-one else does.

"So just because nothing's been reported from the other types of electricity generation, doesn't mean impacts aren't occurring, they're just not being measured."

Environmental consultant Travis How of consultancy company EBS Ecology says there are wedge-tailed eagles and peregrine falcons at the proposed Stony Gap wind farm site, south of Burra.

"We've worked with TRUenergy to then design infrastructure around that so potential habitat and the known populations aren't impacted upon at all," he said.

Topics: wind-energy, alternative-energy, environment, environmental-impact, environmentally-sustainable-business, birds, animal-science, waterloo-corner-5110, port-pirie-5540, renmark-5341, sa

First posted April 24, 2012 08:53:25