Climate change is a global catastrophe-in-progress, which has already claimed countless lives directly and indirectly. A recent report has found the effects of climate change worsening wholesale across the US, speaking to the existential threat we face even as we attempt to reduce our carbon emissions.
Alternative energy sources are crucial to reversing climate change, with renewable energy sources like wind leading the way. Wind turbine designs continually improve, while more wind farm projects are secured – but there are some ancillary impacts of turbine installation that pose threats of their own.
Turbines and Wildlife Ecosystems
While turbines are undeniably a force for good in the fight for sustainable energy alternatives, their own direct impacts on the environment cannot be ignored – particularly when it comes to airborne species both local and migratory. Turbines are a confusing presence for aerial wildlife, with direct collisions a common cause of death for many unfortunate birds and bats in a given turbine locality.
These direct collisions are not the only impact, either. Turbines can also interrupt migratory patterns, with their construction displacing habitats and other species too – completely shifting the make-up of the local ecosystem with potentially disastrous impacts.
Manufacture and Emissions
A tangential but nonetheless important point to address here is the short-term impact of turbine manufacture and installation on natural ecosystems and the global environment – the latter of which can have long-term impacts geographically. First, though, the manufacturing of parts necessary to create these gargantuan structures can create immediate problems with regards to localized emissions and material waste.
The massive carbon fiber blades are formed from molds under pressure; complex monitoring arrays with pressure sensors and digitally-controlled variables ensure the resins set as they should, minimizing waste from failed molds. Polyurethane resin, or PUR, is used for these blades and easily recycled too – but the recycling process can invoke unnecessary emissions.
The far larger impact relating to manufacture comes from the installation process, where road infrastructure is required for turbine installation on land. Where turbines are installed in rural wetlands, these roads can divide what was once a homogenous ecosystem, creating difficulties for native species.
Harm Mitigation
These impacts are wholly unacceptable for a technology which intends to improve environmental matters as opposed to harm them – but they are by no means impossible problems to solve. Indeed, there are already numerous solutions being tested and deployed to reduce instances of death-by-collision. For one, the painting of turbines with UV light can make them more visible to species of bat; for another, a combination of species-recognition software and automated turbine shutdown processes can mitigate eagle deaths and injuries as they pass through a turbine field.
Ultimately, though, it is impossible to rule out turbines as an impactful presence in wildlife zones. The solution may be to build turbines in less rural areas, in order to preserve what little natural land we do have left. Urban turbine construction is another issue entirely, but one that urgently needs addressing as our natural ecosystems continue to suffer.