Fact or Fiction: Turbine Bird Death

 Wind energy! Clean, renewable, economical. Humans have been using wind energy for generations, from moving boats across the water to grinding grain, pumping water and with increasing popularity for producing electrical energy. Wind turbines appeal to the desire of many who use them to lessen their impact on the environment, while they do ease the environmental impact they are not completely without some impact no matter how small it may be. One of the perceived problems with wind energy and more pointedly with wind turbines is their affect on bird mortality. Unfortunately this issue has been exaggerated greatly.

It's not that wind turbines may add to bird mortality, it’s a matter of how much, or rather how many. Occasionally a bird may be lost to the whirling rotor of a wind turbine; it is an extremely rare event. Statistical studies from a variety of sources show that wind turbines account for very few bird deaths annually. In fact, cats and windows in buildings account for the greatest number of bird fatalities per year here in the United States. Don't believe us? Check out Focus on Energy's research on the topic.

So please inform and educate your friends, neighbors and potential wind energy naysayers with the facts about the danger birds face from domestic cats, windows, tall buildings, autos, telecommunication towers and pesticides and the very low risk wind turbines present to birds.