Wind farms useful but may threaten birds

WASHINGTON – Wind farms could generate as much as 7 percent of U.S. electricity in 15 years, but scientists want to spend more time studying the threat those spinning blades pose to birds and bats.

The towers appear most dangerous to night-migrating songbirds, bats and some hunting birds such as hawks and eagles. The risk is not well enough known to draw conclusions, a panel of the
National Research Council said Thursday in a study requested by Congress.

“The human impacts of wind farms can be both positive and negative,” said Paul G. Risser, chairman of the committee that prepared the report.

Clearly the farms provide jobs and in some cases they can even be a recreational attraction, he said. But there can also be an effect on property values and reflections off the rotor blades can be distracting to some people, said Risser, of the University of Oklahoma and current acting director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

AP