www.windaction.orgfacts, analysis, exposure of wind energy's real impactsWindactionhttp://www.windaction.org/articles/c38+56?theme=atomXarayar2006-06-12T02:16:27Z
Wind power has its own environmental problems.219212009-07-05T17:12:09Z2009-07-05T17:12:09ZWind power generation is expected to be a clean and environmentally friendly natural energy source, but a new kind of environmental problem has surfaced as infrasonic waves caused by windmills are suspected of causing health problems for some people. ...Wind power generation also poses a danger to birds, which are often struck and killed by the spinning vanes of the windmills. The Japanese Environment Ministry confirmed 13 such bird strikes in which white-tailed eagles, a rare species, were killed since fiscal 2003.Wind farm 'kills Taiwanese goats'.213052009-05-21T17:45:56Z2009-05-21T17:45:56ZAbnormal noises could affect growth and feeding of the goats, officials say
A large number of goats in Taiwan may have died of exhaustion because of noise from a wind farm.
A farmer on an outlying island told the BBC he had lost more than 400 animals after eight giant wind turbines were installed close to his grazing land. ...Mr Kuo said the power company had offered to help him move but that there would be no compensation for the loss of his goats.
Wind turbine noise suspected of killing 400 goats.213032009-05-21T08:39:39Z2009-05-21T08:39:39ZLate-night noise from spinning wind turbines on an outlying island of Taiwan may have killed 400 goats over the past three years by depriving them of sleep, an agricultural inspection official said on Thursday.Bird strikes lead to delays in wind turbine projects.193982009-01-07T05:14:17Z2009-01-07T05:14:17ZOperators of wind turbines are already under pressure to improve the structures' quake-resistance strength. Now, they face another problem with nature: endangered birds flying into the turbines' blades.
The bird strike problem has become so serious that measures to protect the fowl are slowing the spread of wind power as a source of electricity generation. ...
A total of 14 birds designated by the government as national treasures, including white-tailed sea eagles, have died at different sites by flying into completed wind turbines. Ecological butchering at Attappadi.172972008-08-09T23:07:10Z2008-08-09T23:07:10ZIt's a daylight butchering of Mother Earth in Attappadi. Heads of towering hills are being chopped to install windmills in this ecological hotspot and the largest tribal habitat in the state. Over 20-metre wide roads, posing threat to remaining trees in the area, are being constructed from the foothills to their top to transport windmill units weighing 80-100 tonnes each by giant Volvo trucks.
The green tag attached to windmills exempt them from environmental clearance which leads to mindless destruction of nature with impunity.
Wind mills, poachers drive wolves away.120562007-10-05T15:31:29Z2007-10-05T15:31:29ZOnce the habitat of wolves and hyenas, now replaced by wind mills at Gajendragad.
Endangered hyenas and wolves rapidly disappearing from Gajendragad ...Three years ago, Gajendragad was recognised as a safe haven for highly endangered species like the Indian grey wolf and striped hyenas, but then came wind farming and wind mills with huge noisy fans and human traffic to maintain these machines. It drove away these species from their habitat.
How winds of change could be an alternative to coal.115502007-08-28T02:13:10Z2007-08-28T02:13:10ZThe new India has urgent energy needs to sustain its economic boom, and great potential for wind energy. Today it accounts for less than 5 per cent of total generation. To meet its electricity generation target of 400,000MW by 2030 it will rely not on renewable energy but on large-scale coal-fired power plants, which are the cheapest to operate. Today Today 62 per cent of India's electricity is powered by coal.
Wind energy makes little sense for private investors without the big tax breaks offered by the Government.
According to Ameen Ahmed, a wildlife campaigner in Karnataka, they are "not worth the environmental damage" that they cause. The turbines "have devastated large tracts of forest and many villagers complain about the noise pollution". There have also been reports of the whirring driving bears from their natural habitat.
Research for the birds (and wind turbines).108582007-07-20T11:32:21Z2007-07-20T11:32:21ZYet when the National Planning Committee (NPC) approved plans for building a wind turbine farm directly on the path of the migration flyway, SPNI came out in strong opposition..."Of the 90,000 birds migrating over, the flight path of roughly 10,000 passed directly through the air space where the wind turbines are planned. Obviously these birds would have been in great danger of collision with the blades," says Alon. Weekly surveys were conducted during the winter, and daily migration surveys resumed on March 1st, 2005. "During the spring of 2005, bird observers counted another 200,000 plus birds, mostly White Storks of which a minimum of 15,000 crossed over the proposed turbine farm within the range of the blades.Move to protect birds from wind turbines.71792007-01-04T12:16:38Z2007-01-04T12:16:38ZASAHIKAWA, Hokkaido–Wind turbines that grace the terrain of this northern region may soon be painted fire-engine red and lit up at night: not for aesthetic reasons, but to stop low-flying birds from crashing into the whirling blades.
With reports of rare bird species being killed off by wind turbines in Hokkaido and elsewhere, companies that operate them are scrambling to find effective yet economically viable methods to make the units more environmentally friendly.
Tokyo Report: Wind power projects face foul wind.59312006-10-23T13:06:35Z2006-10-23T13:06:35ZAn unfavorable wind is starting to blow against wind power generation in Japan.
Wind power is often referred to as an environment-friendly energy source that emits no carbon dioxide. Consequently generators are being built in many parts of Japan.
However, a small but growing number of people, especially intellectuals, are voicing opposition to the construction of wind turbines.................
Ministry eyes steps to stop migrating birds from being killed by wind turbines.45092006-08-17T22:02:41Z2006-08-17T22:02:41ZThe [Japanese] Environment Ministry is urgently trying to find ways to stop migrating birds from crashing into wind turbines amid government plans to dramatically increase this form of power generation.
The impact of wind farm construction on the Sousa Dolphins.99492007-06-04T12:05:23Z2007-06-04T12:05:23ZAnother disturbing threat to Taiwan's Indo-Pacific Humpback dolphins Sousa chinensis is the development of wind farms within their existing habitat. Despite the obvious fact that the construction of wind farms will result in loss of habitat for the already struggling population of Taiwan's Humpback dolphins, one also has to consider what other impact the construction of these proposed offshore wind farms will have on the Humpback dolphins and other cetaceans in that area.
