Wind farm kills 20 wedge-tailed eagles in 18 months

Green groups have demanded stricter rules to cover the impact of renewables on native wildlife after a big developer revealed one of its wind farms had killed 20 wedge-tailed eagles in the past 18 months.

Tilt Renewables, the owner of the 66-turbine Rye Park wind farm near Yass, in southern NSW near Canberra, told a meeting of a community groups on Tuesday it was looking at new mitigation measures after the project led to a higher than expected number of bird deaths.

At least 20 wedge-tailed eagles have been killed by one NSW wind farm in the past 18 months. Alamy

The revelation is set to compound difficulties for renewables projects in the Yass Valley region of the state, where prospective developers already face intense pushback from community groups and local councils.

Bird deaths from wind turbines are a key concern for many environmental groups, including the Bob Brown Foundation, which has used the issue to campaign aggressively against a big project on Tasmania’s Robbins Island.

Artificial intelligence technology to reduce the number of bird deaths has been successfully implemented by two wind farms in Tasmania. The technology detects bird activity and temporarily shuts down turbines for particular avian species.

Australian Conservation Foundation national nature campaigner Jess Abrahams said eagles played a vital role in the food chain, including by preying on invasive rabbits, and were totemic for many First Nations communities.

“Video camera technology is available that can help wind farms detect birds that fly too close to their turbines,” said Abrahams.

“Technology won’t completely solve this problem, but it can significantly help reduce the risks.”

Australia needed to get off coal and gas and quickly build more renewable energy to combat climate change, he said. However, wind and solar farms had to be built in the right places.

“That means avoiding threatened species habitat and migratory bird routes. It also means reducing impacts on wildlife wherever possible. We call on the operators to install technology to detect and protect eagles,” he said.

A Tilt spokeswoman said the company had sought expert advice from ecologists and bird specialists to limit the effects on wildlife, including by removing dead sheep carcasses and rabbit warrens that could attract eagles.

“Tilt Renewables takes seriously any impacts our wind farms have on the local environment – especially in relation to bird strikes,” said the spokeswoman.

“We actively monitor our impacts from the start. This includes regular searches of the area around our turbines with trained sniffer dogs to find any dead wedge-tailed eagle.”

The company said it immediately reported wedge-tailed eagle deaths to state planning authorities, and its Rye Park project had an overall positive impact on the environment, including by offsetting more than 755,000 tonnes of carbon emissions every year.

“This process has alerted us that wedge-tailed eagle impacts are higher than expected at Rye Park compared to our other wind farms, and we are doing something about this,” the spokeswoman said.

“We have been in discussion with the department exploring what additional mitigations we can undertake. We have prepared a wedge-tailed eagle mitigation plan which has several steps we can take to protect our native fauna.

“We continue to actively monitor bird deaths and will put in place more mitigation measures as agreed with the department.”

Peter Holding, a spokesman for Farmers for Climate Action, a pro-renewables lobby group, said wind farms should not get planning approval unless they installed the bird-kill mitigation measures.

“The shift to clean energy can be kind to nature. There are affordable and effective solutions to this issue,” he said.

“We need to do significantly better on this issue. These eagle deaths are unacceptable when technology is available to prevent it.

“The time for consideration is over. The time for action is now. We ask government to make bird-kill mitigation measures standard conditions for wind farm approvals.”

Holding said painting one turbine blade a different colour had been shown to reduce deaths in other countries.

The NSW state government recently floated a separate plan to crack down on “ghost projects” in the state planning system, a measure aimed partly at addressing concerns in areas such as Yass with many project proposals.

Wendy Tuckerman, the NSW Liberal member for Goulburn, said the bird-kill rates were a function of poor planning approvals.

“The government just wants to rush through these things without proper process. It’s going to continue to be a problem – species could be absolutely decimated,” she said.

A spokesperson for the federal Environmental Protection Authority said the wedge-tailed eagle deaths were “concerning”.

“The federal government’s role in relation to this wind farm is limited to potential impacts on nationally protected threatened species,” the spokesperson said.

“Mainland Australia’s wedge-tailed eagles are not listed as a nationally protected threatened species, so any impacts would be a matter for the NSW government.”