Wind Power Fact Finding Visit to the United States

14 – 27 October 2002

Department of Primary Industries Water and Environment DPIWE Fact Finding Visit to the United States - October 2002

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1. Background

Generating electricity from wind energy is currently the most rapidly growing sector in the industry. As of January 2002, the worldwide installed wind power generating capacity was in the order of 25,000 megawatts (MW), of which 18,000 MW was installed in Europe and 4,500 MW installed in North America. The worldwide installed capacity is projected to double within 5 years.

In Australia, current installed wind power generating capacity is of the order of 100 MW, with an additional 1,600 MW of projects currently proposed. In , ’s Woolnorth has a current generating capacity of around 10 MW, with a further 120 MW under development. Hydro’s proposed Heemskirk and Musselroe Wind Farms are each in the order of 160 MW generating capacity. Further wind farms of similar magnitudes are currently being investigated for several other sites within Tasmania. Hydro Tasmania has projected that the State has the potential to generate around 1,000 MW of electricity from wind power.

Wind power has the potential in Tasmania (via the Basslink interconnector with ) to provide significant renewable energy to mainland Australia, and contribute to reductions in emissions for the electricity generation industry. The expansion of wind power in Australia is principally being driven by the Commonwealth Government’s Mandated Renewable Energy Target (MRET) legislation, which requires that an additional 9,500 gigawatt hours of Australia’s electricity be provided from new renewable sources by 2010.

Wind farm developments have a number of potential environmental and planning issues. These include noise impacts, visual impacts, transmission line issues and flora and fauna impacts. In Tasmania, potential impacts on birds are likely to be the most significant environmental issues associated with wind farm developments. Wind farms do kill birds, and a number of State and Commonwealth listed threatened and migratory species occur in high wind resource areas targeted for wind farm development. These species include the endangered Orange-bellied Parrot and the Wedge-tailed Eagle. All three of the major wind farm developments to date have triggered the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act on the basis of the projects’ potentially significant impacts on listed threatened and migratory species.

The Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment is responsible for the regulation of environmental requirements associated with the , and is currently assessing the proposed Heemskirk and developments.

It is critical that Departmental Officers have up-to-date knowledge of this rapidly expanding industry so that wind farm developments can be assessed and regulated at a high standard consistent with international best practice. While still in its infancy in Australia, the in the United States and Europe is well established, and research into avian (bird) impacts and other issues has been undertaken for many years.

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The Departmental fact-finding visit provided an opportunity to attend a peak conference of North American specialists in the field of avian impacts with wind farms (EPRI Conference on Avian Impacts with Wind Power Structures in Wyoming). It also enabled site visits to several large wind farm sites (Foote Creek Rim Wind Resource Area in Wyoming and the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area in California), and to visit the peak wind power research centre in North America (at the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado).

Participants

Mr Stewart Johnson – Head of the Major Projects Assessments Section, Environment Division. Stewart is responsible for managing the environmental assessment of wind farm proposals and preparing the assessment report and recommendations to the Board of Environmental Management and Pollution Control. He was responsible for preparing the environmental assessment report for the Woolnorth Wind Farm on behalf of the Board and played a key role in negotiating the approval and conditions for that project with the Commonwealth.

Mr Mark Holdsworth – Project Manager of the Orange-bellied Parrot Recovery Program and State representative on the national Recovery Team (OBPRT). Mark was instrumental in establishing Aurora’s Bird Mortality with Power Assets Project and has been intensively involved in the assessment process for Tasmanian wind farm projects. In consultation with the OBPRT, he has provided advice to wind farm developers, planners and consultants on issues relating to the conservation of the Orange-bellied Parrot. He has also been involved in providing advice in relation to potential impacts of wind farms on other bird species, including the Wedge-tailed Eagle and White-bellied Sea-eagle.

Mr Eric Schwarz, Environmental Consultant with Hydro Tasmania, also participated in the visit.

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2. EPRI Conference – Avian Interactions with Wind Power Structures, October 16 – 17, Jackson Hole, Wyoming

The conference was organised by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in cooperation with the US National Wind Coordinating Committee (NWCC). Representatives from most North American organisations associated with research into wind power avian impacts, as well as State and Federal regulatory authorities and wind power utilities attended the conference. There were also delegates from South Africa, Norway, United Kingdom, Spain, and China. Mark Holdsworth gave a well- received presentation to delegates on Wind Power and the Orange Bellied Parrot.

The key points from the presentations were as follows.

Robert Thresher, Director, National Wind Technology Centre, NREL

• Wind is the cheapest renewable energy source at present. Biomass and photvoltaics also have possibilities. • Turbine technology has moved from 50 kW machines in the early 1980s to 1.8 MW machines now, with projections of 5 MW machines by the end of the decade. • Energy costs are decreasing as a result of increased turbine size, research and development advances and manufacturing improvements – from 40¢/kWh in 1979 to 4-6¢/kWh in 2000 and projected to 3-4¢/kWh by 2004. • Limited potential exists for further cost reductions with current technology. The greatest potential is from improving rotors and controls (advanced materials and blade design) and drive train (eliminating gearbox with direct drive, multi generator drive). Other areas for gains are from new tower concepts (tall towers, self erecting towers, on-site manufacture), improved availability of generation and reduced energy losses, manufacturing improvements and regional and site tailored designs. • Technology limits likely to be 2-5 MW machines, with flexible, thin, high speed hybrid rotors up to 120 m diameter with self erecting towers up to 100 metres height. • GE has 3.6 MW prototype in Spain. It has a hybrid tower, concrete base, 104 metre diameter rotor, and a helicopter platform on top of nacelle. It is being developed for offshore application. • US Department of Energy is seeking to improve low wind speed technology to increase areas available for wind power development. • Wind energy sites should not be positioned within avian migratory paths as this has serious implications under national legislation if collisions occur.

Richard Anderson – California Energy Commission

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• Provided background to National Wind Coordinating Committee (NWCC). NWCC was formed in 1994 to provide a forum for identifying issues and impacts, promoting coordination, and catalysing actions to reduce barriers to future wind power development. NWCC includes representation from power companies, industry organisations, environmental organisations, State and Federal energy agencies and regulators. • NWCC established a number of subcommittees, including the Avian Subcommittee. Outlined work of Avian Subcommittee, including studies commissioned, research topics explored and identified for future research, documents prepared (Permitting of Wind Energy Facilities: A Handbook – updated August 2002, and Studying Wind Energy/Bird Interactions: A Guidance Document – the ‘metrics’ document) • Despite significant increases in our knowledge of avian–wind power interactions, avian impacts remains a serious consideration for new wind farm siting. Problem sites can be avoided by adequate consideration of avian issues early in the site selection process. • The Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area (APWRA) in California was the first site where avian collisions were recognised as a significant environmental impact of wind farms. Siting of this facility did not take into account bird usage. Deaths of birds were initially reported by the public and have involved politically sensitive species such as the Golden Eagle. The public controversy that has surrounded bird deaths at this site caused significant damage to the reputation of the wind energy industry and has been widely used as an example of how not to design and develop wind farms. • The numbers of breeding raptor pairs at the APWRA is relatively constant, but floater population is in decline. This may lead to pair replacement problems in future. Local eagles may be becoming accustomed to the turbines, but birds transiting through site are at greater risk. (Carl Thelander). The issue of cumulative impacts had not been adequately addressed and is problematic. • What NWCC has learned: o Wind turbines kill birds and bats. o Bird impacts can be significant or insignificant. o Raptors are a high-risk bird group. o Bird use, mortality and risk vary between and within wind resource areas – ie issues are site specific. o Birds are killed during both day and night, in good and poor visibility. o There is no conclusive data as to whether large or small turbines reduce risk, or tubular or lattice towers reduce risk. o There are no certain means of significantly reducing avian fatalities. o Avoidance of areas with high bird use is the only proven way to avoid high levels of avian fatalities. • Areas identified for further work include: o Methods for measuring significance of mortality rates due to windfarm impacts on species population. o Development of nocturnal survey methods and metrics for birds and bats. o Continue avian utilisation studies. o Prey management in vicinity of turbines to reduce fatalities. o Bird collision risk for large versus small turbines.

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o Evaluation of risk reduction devices/actions – such as acoustic signals, blade colour, etc. o Evaluation of aversion training for raptors. o Evaluation of mortality at string end turbines or string gaps, versus mid-string turbines. o Evaluate effectiveness of turbine shutdown protocols.

Wally Eriksen – West Inc – Case examples

• Tip speed of smaller turbines is similar to that of larger turbines – around 300 km/h. • When considering fatality data for different sites, the difference in dead bird search efficiency should be taken into account- eg topography, vegetation, and predator rates. • Dead bird searches should take into account scavenger rates and issues relating to observability. • Strong correlations have been noted between large episodic mortality rates and poor weather at communication towers. • At Foote Creek Rim WRA (Wyoming), turbines were moved back from cliff edge to avoid high activity area for Golden Eagles, with minimal energy production loss. Raptor mortality rates at that site have not been an issue to date. • Other siting preferences to minimise risk of avian collision are to avoid siting turbines in saddles, and to locate on ‘downward’ rather than ‘upward’ slopes. • Empirical data suggests low raptor mortality and risk at ‘new generation’ wind farm sites (such as Foote Creek Rim WRA). Possible factors include proper siting, characteristics of new turbines, increased turbine spacing and project size. • Overall bird mortality rates from wind turbines at current development level is minor relative to overall human-caused bird mortality rates, however it was acknowledged that impacts on threatened and endangered (T&E) species and raptors remain issues of concern. • Buffalo Ridge WRA (Minnesota) results: o High bat fatalities identified. o Mortality searches out to 65 metres from tower on alternate weeks, but most found within 30 metres. o Around half of mortalities are nocturnal migrating passerines. o Resident breeding population mortality rates appear low. o Identified reduced avian use in close proximity (ie <100 m) to turbines. o Lower mortality rates for turbines sited away from wetlands and woodlands/forest. • UV paint and lighting – UV paint tried at Foote Creek Rim WRA, with half turbines having higher UV reflectivity than normal turbines. Study (although flawed) showed no significant difference in mortality rate. • Advocated strongly that the best means of avoiding problems is to understand bird use of the development area and apply this knowledge to macro and micro siting of turbines. Micro siting should also be used to provide adequate corridors for migratory species. • In general, modern developments in the USA have achieved good pre- development protocols to avoid problems.

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Albert Manville – US Fish and Wildlife Service

• US Fish and Wildlife Service is the Federal agency responsible for conservation and management of 836 avian species. One hundred and twenty-nine of these are also listed under the Migratory Birds Treaty Act, which has strict penalties for any migratory bird mortalities, irrespective of significance for the species. There is no automatic provision for incidental take of migratory or threatened species under federal legislation and therefore any deaths caused by developments could result in prosecutions. Permits are issued for incidental take of threatened species only where Habitat Conservation Plans are produced. There is no provision for this under the Migratory Birds Treaty Act. • Looking to develop agreements (‘Avian Protection Plans’) with power utilities to implement best practice avoidance measures to minimise potential for bird impacts to minimise the risk of prosecution. (ie risk of prosecution is lower if they are implementing best practice measures). • Fish and Wildlife Service has developed voluntary guidelines for telecommunication towers and is currently preparing interim guidelines for wind farms to be released for stakeholder comment in the next month. Guidelines will include: o Requirements for monitoring wildlife impacts pre- and post- construction. o Dead bird searches once or twice a week within area of 1.5 to 2 times tower height. o Site selection to avoid impacts. o Site configuration to avoid impacts – ie avoid cliffs, saddles, and bird colonies. o Preference for white strobe, minimum intensity, upshielded aircraft safety lighting to minimise risk to birds. • Looking at blade colouring positions and infrasound as options to reduce impacts. • The Fish and Wildlife Service advocates a precautionary approach to wind farm developments to ensure that impacts are avoided.

Paul Kerlinger – Curry and Kerlinger Consulting - Small project risk assessment

• Have applied ‘Level 1’ risk assessment from NWCC ‘metrics’ document for small projects. • Generally start risk assessment and avian studies when wind monitoring tower goes up. • Dead bird searches within 60 metres of tower, with weekly searches during migration seasons. • Nightly searches at first dawn every day during season at communication towers as proposed by FWS. • A Technical Advisory Committee was established to guide the studies at Buffalo Ridge WRA.

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Tom Gray – American Wind Energy Association

• Fluid leakage can be a problem – need good maintenance programmes.

Mike Azeka – SeaWest Consulting

• Recommends using animated as well as still simulations of visual impact of proposals. • Use of company logos on towers and nacelles can increase visual impact. • Shadow flicker/blade glint impacts on vehicle movements should be considered – especially if there is a major highway nearby.

Greg Johnson – Western EcoSystems Technology Inc. – Bats

• 123 bats killed over three years at Foote Creek Rim WRA. • Most bat mortalities found at base of tower on downwind side of tower. • Mortalities generally involve solitary, tree-roosting bats. • Most mortalities are Hoary Bats, which forage at higher altitudes than other bats. • Most mortalities (>50%) occur in late summer and early autumn (bat migration period). Less during spasmodic migration in spring. • Believes that mortalities were from migratory bats, not from resident breeding populations. • Mortalities are not in foraging areas. • 1 in 70 passes of turbine area results in mortality. • No difference in mortality rates between lit and unlit turbines. • No difference in mortality rates between individual turbines, which would be expected if resident bats were being killed en route between roosting and foraging sites.

Robert Thresher, Director, National Wind Technology Centre, NREL – second presentation

• There are intuitive reasons to think that the newer, bigger turbines will have lower bird impacts than the older, smaller turbines. However, this has yet to be proven and requires validation. • ‘Motion smearing’ – making blades invisible to birds may be a factor in impacts. • Visual patterns on blades may be effective. (Note that patterns on all blades is required to spread the weight and thermal loading equally) • Industry moving into new areas with larger turbines and offshore wind parks.

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Steve Ugoretz – Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources – Offshore wind parks

• Offshore wind parks are being developed in Europe. There is currently around 30 MW installed capacity in Denmark, Netherlands, UK and Sweden. Several projects are proposed off the east coast of US (Cape Cod, Maryland, Long Island). Sites are generally in shallow water depth – 2 to 15 metres, and within several kilometres of the shore. Need to have minimum water depth to allow barges to transport components. Cranes are generally not an issue due to large shipyard and petrochemical industry equipment available. Larger (up to 5 MW) machines are being proposed. • Projects can have impacts on bird habitat as a result of scouring on seabed downstream of turbines degrading fish habitat, or colonisation of tower foundation increasing habitat and bringing birds closer to turbines. Impacts on fisheries (including fish nurseries) can have impacts on birds. • Interconnector cable to shore can have impacts on benthic communities. • Construction of foundations can have acoustic impacts. • There can be vibration impacts during operation. • Offshore bird movements tend to be lower, particularly in reduced visibility conditions, which increases collision risk. • Closer proximity to shore generally means better habitat and greater bird movements. • Birds may colonise turbines. • It is difficult to undertake dead bird searches offshore. In UK, the shoreline down current of the Blyth Harbour Wind Park is checked. • The conflict between requirements for safety lighting and reducing bird collision risk need to be addressed for offshore as well as onshore. • UK has developed guidance notes for offshore. • US Fish and Wildlife Service has developed guidelines for proposed offshore wind parks.

Rick Carlton – EPRI

• EPRI is developing an automated monitoring program for bird impacts on power infrastructure and for observing bird movements. • Bird Strike Indicator (BSI) consists of an accelerometer sensor (as per car airbag) on powerlines with telemetry to ground unit which phones up when collision is detected. • Need to identify problem sites in order to know where to locate BSI. • Looking to integrate system with video system. • Bird Activity Monitor (BAM) is a digital video based system that detects when a bird approaches and places a flag on the data. • Uses video and active IR cameras. • Also logging meteorological conditions to correlate with movements. • Prototype of BSI is being prepared to go into the field in April 2003.

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Conference summary of outcomes

• Despite significant increases in our knowledge of avian–wind power interactions, avian impacts remains a serious consideration for new wind farm siting. Problem sites can be avoided by adequate consideration of avian issues early in the site selection process. • The best means of avoiding problems is to understand bird use of the development area and apply this knowledge to macro and micro siting of turbines. • Standard methodologies/metrics required for nocturnal avian studies, and for offshore wind park avian studies. • Study outcomes are very site specific and species specific. • More research needed into interactions between weather/visibility and collision rates. • Issue of safety lighting requirements needs to be resolved, and in particular to confirm what is required to minimise bird collision risk. • Development of summary document on mitigation options proposed. • More research required into bat interactions, particularly migratory bats. • Investigate using ‘smart blades/towers’ as data collectors to detect and record impacts. • No uniform methodology for dead bird searches. Need to adjust for scavenging, observability, gaps in frequency of searching, search zone.

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3. Foote Creek Rim Wind Resource Area, Arlington Wyoming

The Foote Creek Rim Wind Resource Area (WRA) is a relatively remote, treeless plateau located near Arlington in south eastern Wyoming. The site has strong, steady winds with an average wind speed of around 40 km/h making it one of the prime wind resource areas in the United States. As a result it delivers an average of 43 percent of its peak power year-round. The surrounding area is primarily farming land, with cattle grazing continuing within the wind development area.

The Foote Creek Rim wind farm consists of 100 x 600 kW turbines, 33 x 750 kW turbines and 50 x 1 MW Mitsubishi turbines, with a total capacity of 135 MW. The first stage of the project was commissioned in April 1999, with the most recent stage commissioned this year. It is one of the largest ‘new generation’ wind farms in the United States. The site is owned by PacifiCorp and the Eugene Water and Electric Board and is operated and maintained by SeaWest Wind Power.

The site was identified during baseline surveys as having high raptor utilisation rates, including Bald Eagles and Peregrine Falcons. The project has incorporated a number of features to minimise bird collision risk, including locating all power lines underground within the site, relocating turbines away from the rim edge to avoid high raptor utilisation areas, and the coating of turbine blades with ultra-violet reflecting paint to make them more visible to birds.

These measures appear to have been effective, as recorded mortality rates have been very low. As mentioned at the conference, there has been no conclusive results to show that the UV reflecting paint reduced collision risk.

As a result of the consistent and high wind speeds, the site has had some maintenance issues. The high winds place additional stress on yaw motors and brakes. Several of the smaller turbines had significant oil leakages, and around 5% were not operating at the time of the inspection.

The newer machines had a cut in speed of 3 m/s and a shutdown speed of 28 m/s. Tower heights around 65 metres. Rotor speed ramps up to a maximum of 17 rpm.

The site was visible from around 20 kilometre distance approaching from the north west.

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4. National Wind Technology Centre, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), US Department of Energy, Golden Colorado

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is one of the US Department of Energy’s national research laboratories. NREL is the peak institute for renewable energy and energy efficiency research in the United States, and is principally funded by the Department of Energy.

NREL's mission is to develop renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies and practices, advance related science and engineering, and the transfer of knowledge and innovations to address the nation's energy and environmental goals. NREL is working with power utilities, state regulatory agencies, the World Bank and international trade groups to ensure that renewable energy technologies reach the marketplace as quickly as possible.

The National Wind Technology Centre (NWTC) is one of NREL’s main research facilities. The centre at Golden, Colorado, utilises a collaborative approach between government scientists and US industry to create advanced wind systems of the future. Wind plant operators and electric utilities use the facility for technical assistance as they integrate wind power plants into the national electricity grid. Manufacturers use the facility to test the operation and durability of new components and systems.

The facility is the largest and most sophisticated research centre for wind energy in the United States and one of the world’s leaders in the field. It has an industrial testing facility which has been developed in collaboration with the US wind industry. Together, NREL and industry engineers use computer models to simulate operating wind turbines and individual components. The site’s advanced turbine research facility consists of two test machines that can be configured for testing advanced components in various wind scenarios. The hybrid power test facility focuses on commercially available hybrid power systems, which combine a wind turbine with other renewable energy sources (such as photovoltaics), battery storage, and a backup power system such as a diesel generator.

There are sixteen external fully instrumented wind turbine testing pads so that researchers can study every aspect of wind turbine performance, including wind speed and direction, power output, torque, and other critical factors. Data collected by sensors or video cameras are relayed to a computer for real-time monitoring or storage. A range of prototype machines are installed, including direct drive machines, upwind and downwind machines, three bladed, two bladed and ‘egg beater’ bladed machines.

Meetings were held at the centre with Karin Sinclair - Avian Projects Manager, Brian Parsons – Project Manager Wind Applications, and James Johnson – Site Operations Engineer. The key outcomes from these meetings were as follows.

• The National Wind Coordinating Committee was set up and funded by Department of Energy to facilitate a resolution of issues associated with the wind

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power industry, particularly after the Altamont Pass WRA experience with high bird mortality rates. • The main pressure for bird collision risk assessment and mitigation has come from public groups such as the Audubon Society. • Bird utilisation studies should include reference sites for comparison with wind turbine zone. • The US hasn’t had the equivalent situation to Southern Australia of dealing with potentially significant impacts on critically endangered species (such as the OBP). The Condor in California is the closest example that comes to mind where Altamont Pass WRA was proposed as a release site for this critically endangered species. The presence of the turbines was determined to be an unacceptably high risk to the reintroduction program and other sites were chosen. • Compensation actions were required for a threatened turtle in California. No threatened bird species has been implicated with wind farms in USA and best advice is to avoid siting in key areas. Compensation would apply if this were the case. • Because of the Altamont Pass WRA experience, developers seem to be self- screening out the problem sites in the US. The industry does not want to have another Altamont experience. • Dead bird searches – Methodology in NWCC metrics document has been developed for smaller, older turbines. Area of search based roughly on tower height. Methodology needs to be reviewed for the new generation of larger turbines. • Birds more likely to be impacted by blade tip (as it is moving faster and ‘motion/retinal smearing’ effects), which will result in greater damage to carcass and greater spread of evidence. This may make dead bird searches difficult for smaller birds. • The main mitigation measures used are macro site selection and micro turbine siting, and reducing habitat/disturbance around turbine sites to ensure prey for raptors is not increased around turbine site. • UV reflective paint was applied to some turbines at the Stateline project, but no significant difference in mortality rates was observed between painted and non- painted turbines. • It is understood that typical payments to landowners for wind turbines are in the order of $2,000 USD/turbine/year. • Sustained, high wind sites in Australia and New Zealand are likely to put pressure on the technology, particularly the drive shaft and gearbox. Higher wind sites may not necessarily be the best for development due to greater damage to equipment and higher maintenance costs. • NREL has identified turbulent layer phenomenon at around 100m above ground, which would cause significant damage to the newer, higher turbines. (Low level jet and nocturnal boundary layer). This is a significant issue for the new generation of higher turbines, and may be an issue for the Australian projects. • The technology for onshore developments is reaching peak size. Main restrictions are transportation of components on roads and bridges, and cranage. Industry is likely to move toward partial blade manufacture on site to overcome this constraint. • Current US wind power capacity is around 4,000 MW. Tax credit legislation is driving the current boom in the industry (1.8 c/kWh for 10 years if installed by

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end 2003). The end date for qualifying for the tax credits is likely to be extended. The legislation is expected to result in a doubling of US capacity over the next couple of years. • Current industry trend is toward bigger three bladed upwind machines, however there are limited opportunities to further reduce generating costs significantly by increasing size and quantity of these machines. • 2 bladed downwind machines have potential to reduce costs significantly by eliminating yaw requirements (as machine would be self-aligning), and reducing blade costs (2 blades cheaper than 3, with minimal efficiency losses). NREL also looking at machines that can ride out high winds so they don’t need to shut down or brake. • Other developments are self-erecting towers with direct drive machines for use in remote areas (Alaska, Antarctica). Direct drive machines eliminate need for problematic gearboxes.

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5. Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area, Altamont California

Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area (WRA) contains the world’s largest concentration of wind turbines. The site contains around 5,400 turbines installed by various companies in the 1980’s. The Altamont Pass WRA is located on a series of low hills separating the San Francisco Bay Area from the inland San Joaquin Valley. The WRA stretches around 20 kilometres from north to south and 12 kilometres east to west. The wind farm site was first visible from Dublin, around 23 kilometres to the east.

The WRA includes a range of turbine types, typically around 100 kW capacity producing a total generating capacity for the site of around 600 MW. Tower heights are generally around 20 to 25 metres, with 10 to 12 metre blade length. Turbine separation distances are generally low, with typically around three blade length separation between towers (30 - 35 metres). Lattice and tubular towers, upwind and downwind machines, three, two and egg-beater bladed machines have been installed.

The site is a high utilisation area for raptors and has recorded high levels of bird (and particularly raptor) mortality. Several hundred bird mortalities per year have been recorded, the majority of which are raptors (particularly Golden Eagles and Red-tailed Hawks).

Most of the turbines are old technology and the various companies are undertaking replacement (repowering). The first stage of site repowering is scheduled to commence soon, with around 1300 turbines to be replaced by 187 newer, larger turbines. In anticipation of this, it appears that maintenance schedules are being minimised, allowing turbines to run down to maximise economic return prior to replacement. It is anticipated that the siting of new turbines will avoid the high risk areas on the site.

On site meetings were held with Joan Stewart from FPL Energy, and Shawn Smallwood, a consultant ecologist coordinating the dead bird search studies. The key outcomes of the site visit were as follows.

• Until the last few weeks, access to site for researchers has been limited to around 20% of turbines. As such, mortality rates for the rest of site are unknown. • Turbine strings are placed along ridge lines, on cliff rims, across valleys, gullies and saddles, adjacent to water bodies, surrounding a landfill site, within 50 metres of kestrel nest sites. • Altamont Pass is a migratory route for eagles from the coast to inland valleys, and has high prey numbers. Numerous individual raptors (up to 7 at one time) were sighted around the wind turbines during the site visit. • There are large numbers of rabbits, gophers and ground squirrels in the area. Operators/local authorities have been baiting the area, but apparently not around the turbines. This has led to an increased clustering of prey around turbines and likely to be a key contributing factor in the number of raptor kills. Prey numbers in the area generally remain high, despite the baiting program. The inability to

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manage rangeland issues such as this is seen as a key weakness in mitigation programs. • Banks/cuts created for turbine laydown areas and turbine foundations have created habitat for gophers/rabbits/squirrels. Also cattle like to congregate at base of towers, resulting in increased nutrients and biological activity, which attracts gophers/rabbits/squirrels. • There have been increased mortality rates for turbines located near water, and for turbine strings (rows) located across saddles and valleys (‘canyons’), particularly the lower turbines. • Turbines at the end of turbine strings, or either side of a gap in turbine string do not seem to have increased mortality rates. Although unconfirmed, preliminary results indicate that turbines adjacent to non-operating turbines may kill more birds. • Mortality rates are highest during migration periods, particularly autumn. • Retinal/motion smear is likely to be a factor in mortality. Birds may not be able to see blade tips due to this effect. Black pattern colouring of blades may make blades more visible to birds. • Unlike the new generation turbines, the older turbines at Altamont Pass WRA were quite noisy, with three main noises - a mechanical screeching, whining noise associated with rotation of the rotor and yawing, a motor/compressor type noise presumably associated with gearing or generator, and a thump-thump of the blades moving through the air. Also a loud noise when turbines switch on/off or gear up/down. • The search area for dead birds at the site is based on turbine height. Larger turbines would require larger search areas but the formula for determining this was not available. It was recognised that small birds do get blown outside the search zone, however, there were no species of significance at the site. Raptor species are the focus and therefore the search zone is sufficient to detect these large bodied birds. • The studies assumed that all detections of birds resulted from collision with turbines and that there was an unmeasured incidence of injured birds moving outside the survey areas. • The low scavenging rate of raptors combined with the relatively uniform and open vegetation allows dead bird searches to cover all available turbines over a 6 week rotation. Sampling a smaller number of turbines more frequently was thought not to be capable of producing adequate results.

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6. Key Conclusions and Recommendations

The wind power industry is going through a major expansion phase worldwide. Relative to North America and Europe, Australia has an excellent wind resource but minimal installed capacity. As such, it appears likely that the number of wind farms proposed in Southern Australia will increase over the next few years rather than decrease. In Tasmania, it is likely that large-scale wind projects will continue to be proposed beyond those currently under development, and that players other than Hydro Tasmania will seek to enter the market. If international trends continue, then offshore wind development may also be contemplated.

The challenge for the wind industry will be to develop the wind resource during this expansion period in a way that maintains general public, government and financial institution support for the industry. The management of issues, in particular avian and visual impacts, is critical to successful development within the industry.

At present, there is no formal industry body equivalent to the US National Wind Coordinating Committee in Australia. The establishment of a similar body, consisting of regulatory, industry, research and community representatives, would be a useful means to ensure national consistency in dealing with environmental issues, monitoring, modelling, research, and regulatory requirements across jurisdictions. It is considered that the establishment of such a body would be in Tasmania’s interests, and that it should be established as soon as possible.

It is recommended that the State Government consider establishing wind development criteria/exclusion zones for Tasmania. The project could identify criteria for key issues, such as threatened species and migratory species, RAMSAR sites, visual impact, reserves, noise, etc). It could identify key Orange-bellied Parrot sites and migratory routes, areas of high raptor utilisation, specify minimum coastal buffers, and minimum bird baseline survey periods. Similar criteria/zones have been developed in other areas/states throughout the world.

It would be beneficial for DPIWE to be contacted by proponents as early as possible in the project development phase. One method of achieving this could be to establish a trigger for DPIWE to be routinely notified by Councils of applications for wind monitoring towers (the precursor to wind farm development). This would also ensure that standard bird collision risk reduction guidelines are applied to wind monitoring towers.

It is recommended that the State Government ensure it has policies in place for dealing equitably with applications for wind monitoring/wind farm development on Crown Land, and for balancing the use of Crown Land for wind development with other present and future land uses.

North America does not appear to have wind farm projects with potentially significant impacts on a threatened avian species on the scale of those in Southern Australia. The Golden Eagle, which is being killed in large numbers at Altamont Pass WRA, is a protected species but is not a listed threatened species. Other protected species, such as the Peregrine Falcon (Endangered Species Act) and Bald Eagle (Bald Eagle

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Protection Act), and migratory birds (Migratory Bird Treaty Act) do not appear to have been impacted by wind farm developments. Southern Australia would seem to be relatively unique internationally in having to deal with potential wind farm impacts on a critically endangered species such as the Orange-bellied Parrot and Wedge-tailed Eagle although a new wind farm projects in British Columbia, Canada may have similar issues due to potential impacts on the endangered Marbled Murrelet.

It was concluded that Tasmania has appropriately applied international knowledge of avian interactions to specific local issues, in a way that is consistent with the US approach to the issue. In particular the use of micro siting, on site and off site mitigation (rangeland management) and compensatory activities are consistent with the approaches available to our counterparts in the United States. Tasmania is achieving higher standards of environmental stewardship than has occurred in the past at some wind farms, such as Altamont Pass WRA.

As a result of the rapid recent development of larger wind turbines, much of the research work to date on smaller turbines may not necessarily be directly applicable to the new wind farm projects proposed in Australia. Intuitively, avian interactions with a single 80 metre diameter rotor machine on a 100 metre high tower with a generating capacity of 2 MW are likely to be different to interactions with 20 turbines with 25 metre diameter rotors on 30 metre towers with an equivalent generating capacity.

In addition, research results are species-specific and site-specific, which further qualifies the application of overseas findings to Australian projects.

Altamont Pass WRA and Foote Creek Rim WRA examples contrasted the differences between older and new wind turbine technology, and confirmed that macro and micro siting of turbines are likely to significantly reduce bird mortality rates. Altamont Pass is an example of what can happen when bird collision risk is not taken into consideration for macro and micro siting decisions.

There is general consensus within the industry that the only proven way to minimise the risk of bird collisions is to avoid siting projects and turbines in areas of high bird activity and key sites for threatened species. It is recognised that mortality of either politically sensitive species or threatened species has a negative impact on all of the industry. The death of birds on turbines is contrary to the ‘green’ values of wind energy and all reasonable steps need to be taken to minimise impacts.

As wind turbine heights increase, the potential conflicts between aircraft safety requirements and environmental requirements need to be identified and resolved.

It is recommended that there be greater emphasis on potential for bat collisions in impact assessment for new projects. Little is known about bat movements in Tasmania and it may be a significant, undetected impact of wind farms.

There is a need to develop a standard methodology for dead bird searches for the new generation of larger turbines. This may be best achieved by research at the Woolnorth wind farm site and application of search zone formula from contacts in the United States.

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Consideration should be given to restricting the use of company logos on nacelles to reduce visual impact.

The visit highlighted the importance of sharing knowledge across the industry and between regulators. For this reason, information gathered and lessons learnt from each project should be widely available and where possible published in peer reviewed journals. The number of wind farm projects currently under development will result in a large body of information being produced over the next few years. Combined with the increased consideration of avian impacts of other infrastructure (such as power lines and telecommunication towers), there is an opportunity for a major conference to be held to consolidate current knowledge. It is recommended that consideration be given to holding an avian impacts conference in Tasmania in 2004/05. It is envisaged that such a conference could be hosted by DPIWE in conjunction with Hydro Tasmania, Aurora, Birds Australia and other partners.

Stewart Johnson Mark Holdsworth Section Head Manager Major Projects Assessments Section Orange-bellied Parrot Recovery Program Environment Division DPIWE

10 November 2002

Disclaimer

The information contained in this report is based on published information, written and verbal information provided to the authors, and the authors’ observations. Written and verbal information provided to the authors and included in this report has not necessarily been verified.

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Appendix 1 – Photographs

Photo 1 – Foote Creek Rim WRA, Wyoming

Photo 2 – Foote Creek Rim WRA, Wyoming

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Photo 3 – Foote Creek Rim WRA, Wyoming

Photo 4 – National Wind Technology Centre, Colorado

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Photo 5 – National Wind Technology Centre, Colorado

Photo 6 – Altamont Pass WRA, California

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Photo 7 – Altamont Pass WRA, California

Photo 8 – Altamont Pass WRA, California

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Photo 9 – Wind-damaged turbine blade at Altamont Pass WRA, California

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