Bird and bat deaths caused by wind turbines will be the subject of a national study involving 30 scientists from universities, industry, government and non-governmental organizations.

A proposal by an Eastern Washington utility consortium to build the state's first coastal wind farm by 2011 has run smack up against the habitat requirements of a threatened seabird. Energy Northwest, based in the Tri-Cities, has signed a lease with the Washington Department of Natural Resources to build a wind farm on 3,359 acres of state trust land near Naselle, in Pacific County.

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett must approve the Stockyard Hill Wind Farm, under national laws, before it can go ahead. The project has gone to the Federal Government because it has been found likely to have significant environmental impact. It now must be assessed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

The proposed Stockyard Hill Wind Farm will require further environmental studies to determine the impact of local wildlife. Last week the Federal Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts announced that Origin Energy’s proposed Stockyard Hill wind farm could have significant impact on protected species and communities. ...The decision will require further environmental studies be conducted to assess the severity of impact on native species and communities protected under the EPBC Act, such as migratory birds and critically endangered Natural Temperate Grassland of the Victorian Volcanic Plains.

RSPB Scotland has today lodged a formal objection to the Viking wind farm proposal on Shetland. After scrutinising in detail the developer's application, assessments have revealed there would be significant and unacceptable adverse impacts on many bird species should the development proceed as currently proposed.

RSPB Scotland has lodged an objection to plans for Scotland's largest community wind farm, on Shetland. The Viking Energy project, for 150 turbines, is a joint venture between Scottish and Southern Energy and the island community. ...Populations of birds, including the golden plover, could be threatened by some of the turbines, RSPB Scotland said.

Massive wind turbines seem to be killing more and more migratory bats, prompting research into these neglected creatures and efforts to minimize the toll. ...The deaths have led to a flurry of research on migratory bats and their behavior. "The problem with bats and wind energy has pushed a lot of work that wouldn't have occurred otherwise," says Edward Arnett of the Austin, Texas-based nonprofit Bat Conservation International. Indeed, at a January conference in Berlin on migratory bats, wind farms were a dominant theme. Scientists are racing to figure out what brings the bats in contact with wind turbines, and what can be done to save them.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation wants to see more studies in the proposed Galloo Island Wind Farm's draft environmental impact statement. Upstate NY Power Corp., backed by Pattern Energy Group LP, San Francisco, plans to build an 84-turbine wind farm on the island rated at 252 megawatts. Recently, Pattern bought out Babcock & Brown Ltd.

A decision to block wind energy development from key sage grouse habitats in Wyoming could effectively nullify a significant portion of the state's wind energy resource. But exactly how much is unclear. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering listing the sage grouse as a threatened and endangered species. Half of the bird's remaining prime habitat in the West lies within Wyoming's borders.

Similar to transformations brought by oil and agricultural industries in past decades, the [wind] industry's impact is more than skin deep. Some researchers have found going green through a new generation of windmills may not be what's best for the environment. "There's almost no understanding of the environmental impact of these wind turbines," said Ronald Kendall, director of Texas Tech's Institute of Environmental and Human Health. "I'm all for alternative energy, but I'm for getting it right."

The Australian Federal Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) announced that Origin Energy's proposed Stockyard Hill wind farm could have significant impact on protected species and communities. They have therefore determined that the project be subject to "controlled action" under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC).

The Competitive Renewable Energy Zone transmission lines proposed to pass through West and Central Texas have a number of ranchers and small town dwellers up in arms about the effect the 200-foot-tall lattice towers would have on the scenic Texas Hill Country. The Lower Colorado River Authority-Transmission Services Corp. proposes to construct three new, double-circuit, bundled conductor, 345-kilovolt transmission lines, primarily on double-circuit-capable lattice structures.

The office announced Thursday that it has reached an agreement with Baryonyx Corp., a Houston-based green energy company, that could turn waters off the island coast into the nation's biggest wind farm. Baryonyx Corp. was the sole bidder for the right to build a wind farm off the island's eastern shore, GLO spokesman Jim Suydam said.

The US's new economic stimulus plan is providing billions of dollars towards the doubling of the nation's supply of renewable energy; environmentalist groups, however, are opposing the plan to build new transmission lines intended to carry this 
renewable energy. ...Environmentalist group Industrial Wind Action executive director Lisa Linowes says that by establishing new transmission lines, the US is needlessly industrialising the
remote American landscape at the expense of its local residents.

Saying the Mineral County Commissioners "need more facts" in regard to the ongoing controversy over wind farms, Pamela Dodds and Judy O'Hara of the Allegheny Front Alliance spoke to the officials at length Tuesday in an attempt to debunk several claims being made by proponents of wind energy. "I believe you need some more facts in order to better understand the claims that are being made," Dodds said. "U.S. Wind Force has made sweeping claims that are inaccurate and misleading."

Wind farms in Italy threaten to wipe out the Golden Eagle, farmers` organisation Coldiretti and national environmental organisations said Wednesday. A conference against wind power in Rome heard that huge numbers of birds are already being killed when they collide with the spokes of wind towers in Italy.

The Central Highlands could soon be home to the state's biggest wind farm but the endangered wedge- tailed eagle may stop the multimillion-dollar development before it begins. ...But the project faces one major hurdle that has stopped similar developments in the past. N. P. Power had identified that wedge-tailed eagles and white- bellied sea eagles inhabit the region, with two nests existing on the wind farm site.

Cheyenne Wind developers have asked the Department of the Interior to review Wyoming's sage grouse protection policy in light of the state's recent hard-line stance against building wind farms in important habitat areas for the chicken-sized birds. ...Wind developers say they're concerned that Wyoming's position could "abruptly halt wind energy development in Wyoming's sage-grouse 'core areas'.

A month ago HNWD development made national news when its public relations firm announced that Virginia's first utility scale wind project was ready to start construction. As indicated here, that was a blatant misrepresentation. HNWD does not have a building permit, does not have an Erosion and Sediment Control permit, does not have approval from the FAA, has not satisfied the permit conditions imposed by the State Corporation Commission (SCC), and has not obtained an Endangered Species Act permit.

Tanner Gue knows as well as anyone just how wet it's been this summer in some of North Dakota's prime waterfowl country. That's good for ducks, of course, even if it sometimes complicates life for people trying to study them. A UND graduate student, Gue, 25, is heading up the fieldwork portion of a two-year research project aiming to learn more about the impact of wind farms on the survival of nesting ducks.