Myth 2. Wind turbines kill lots of birds

Fact: Monitoring of existing wind farms suggests that with sensitive siting there is no adverse effect on bird populations. Applications for consent for wind farms submitted to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and local councils must be accompanied by an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) that includes details of the likely impact of the project in question on the environment and wildlife, among other things. In considering an application, the Department consults with a range of stakeholders, including the statutory advisers on nature conservation, as well as others with an interest in the project. This ensures that decisions on whether to grant consent for a wind farm are considered in the light of the best available information about its likely impacts.

According to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the available evidence suggests that appropriately positioned wind farms do not pose a significant hazard for birds. The RSPB supports the sustainable development of renewable energy such as wind power because it helps mitigate climate change, which they believe "poses the most significant long-term threat to the environment...The available evidence suggests that appropriately positioned wind farms do not pose a significant hazard for birds." The RSPB's conclusion is supported by a report last year for the Swedish State Energy Authority, which found that only 14 of the total 1.5 million migrating seabirds that each year passes two wind farms at Kalmarsund in south east Sweden are at risk of being killed.

Developers should contact specialists such as the RSPB and conduct a thorough analysis of the risk to birdlife as part of the environmental impact assessment of their wind farm proposal. With rigorous EIAs and thorough monitoring wind power can be deployed without significant detriment to birds (and other wildlife).

For example, the 9 harbour-wall turbines at Blyth are in a busy bird area. Of the bird flights through the wind farm, only 1 in 10,000 have resulted in a collision. This translates to 1-2 collisions per year per turbine. To put the issue into perspective, every year more than 10 million birds are killed by cars in the UK.

Projects like the Black Law windfarm demonstrate that, if properly sited, such developments not only produce zero emissions, but can also have a positive impact on the environment. The RSPB make clear that the Black Law windfarm, on the site of an abandoned opencast coalmine, represents an exciting opportunity to deliver real biodiversity benefits through habitat management. In any case, the likely impact on wildlife must be kept in context. A paper in Nature, by a large group of scientists including one from the RSPB, indicated that in sample regions covering about 20 per cent of the Earth's land surface - 15 per cent to 37 per cent of species (not just birds) will be committed to extinction as a result of mid-range climate warming scenarios by 2050.

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