Public hearings being held today in Greenbrier County on the Beech Ridge Energy wind farm will give critics and supporters alike an opportunity to air their views concerning this controversial project, but ultimately the decision rests with the three-member board of the West Virginia Public Service Commission.

PSC public information director Sara Robertson said the board will be addressing all issues brought forth by Beech Ridge Energy’s siting application.

“A number of things can cause an application not to go through,” Robertson said. “If it is not in the best interest of the public in general, financial risks associated with it and environmental risks.”

The bat-kill issue has caught the attention of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, one of the state’s leading environmental activist groups, which has filed as an “intervenor” in the case.

Peter Schoenfeld, chair of the wind energy committee for WVHC, said the 44-turbine project in Tucker County revealed thousands of bats each year were being killed. Scientists say bats play a key role in stabilizing the natural environment by pollinating plants and keeping the insect population in check. It’s estimated the common brown bat can eat as many as 600 mosquitoes in one hour.

“Some people say that you may be risking a big increase in West Nile Virus if you kill off enough bats,” Schoenfeld told The Register-Herald Monday. “Bats live for a long time and it doesn’t take much to wipe out a whole population.”

Collisions between bats and turbine blades occur at much higher rates than collisions with other man-made structures. Why this occurs is not readily known, but several theories have been offered.

Some bats use the ridgelines of mountains as corridor routes when migrating and may fail to acoustically detect the moving blades of the turbines, according to Beech Ridge’s application with the PSC. Bats may see the tall turbines as a place to roost and might be attracted by their lights. Insects, which concentrate along mountain ridges at night, may also be attracted to the white masts of the turbines, and bats are killed while attempting to eat them.

Compounding this problem is the fact two endangered species of bats protected by federal laws — the Indiana bat and the Virginia big-eared bat — either reside in Greenbrier County during the summer or potentially could pass through during migration.

This information is considered so sensitive that exact habitat locations of these bats had to be blacked out of Beech Ridge’s PSC application for fear of human disturbance by bat seekers.

Beech Ridge officials, while acknowledging the bat-kill issue is a touchy issue, downplays its significance. They use the Tucker County wind farm as an average of what to expect in Greenbrier County.

“Beech Ridge just completed a survey of the bat caves within 5 miles of the project site and we did not find any endangered species,” Dave Groberg, director of development for Invenergy, said. “Based on studies done at other wind projects, Beech Ridge puts the estimate of bat mortality rate at around 47.5 bats per turbine per year” or 5,890 in total.

However, Beech Ridge’s application to the PSC does show concern for the endangered Indiana bat and put the overall estimated bat kill at 6,743 per year. It is expected that hoary bats and eastern red bats will make up the largest portion of bat fatalities.

“The proposed Beech Ridge site presents potential concerns in that it is proximate to Indiana bat hibernacula sites where Indiana bats have been identified in the summer, and caves used in winter and summer,” the application states. “Proximity of these species occurrences increases the likelihood the species will be present in the project area and have potential to collide with the turbine blades during the spring, summer or fall.”

Ed Arnett, a conservation scientist with the Texas non-profit group Bat Conservation International, said the Indiana bat can travel further than 5 miles between roosting and foraging and during migration, although to date, no federally protected bats have been found dead as a result of a wind turbine.

“It appears the forested ridges in the east have the highest rates of bat mortality concerning wind turbines,” he said Monday. “If an Indiana bat was killed by a wind turbine facility, that would be in violation of the federal endangered species act. The data today suggests with the expansion of wind facilities in the east, it is increasing the likelihood to see an endangered species killed and that concerns us.”

Arnett did say BCI supports the development of renewable energy resources and believes “wind energy production is not incompatible with bat conservation.”

With respect to bird kills, Beech Ridge officials estimate an average of nearly 500 birds may die each year as a result of collision with turbines. This pales in comparison with millions of birds killed each year by power lines, buildings and cats. Groberg said.

In a study prepared by The Southern West Virginia Bird Research Center, it concluded the impact on birds will be minimal at Beech Ridge, although it stated “researchers remain unclear as to whether placement of wind turbines on mountain top ridges will cause substantial avian (bird) moralities.”

The study indicated “22 species of concern” were observed in the area, including three bald eagles. Bald eagles are on the endangered species list and are federally protected.

“With respect to bird and bats, we are not required to apply for permits for any endangered species,” Groberg said. “But we are consulting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. We believe the mortality rates are acceptable and the project is not expected to have an impact on migrating birds.”

Wednesday’s final installment of the series will cover the public hearings being held at the State Fairgrounds.

— E-mail: