I was just going through Alberta’s inventory of major project proposals, and found something interesting. There’s $2.4 billion planned for biofuels, and almost $3 billion proposed for wind farms in this province. Sucks to be a bat or an endangered bird of prey right now. This province will be overrun by skeeters, gophers and rabbits within ten years.
Anyways, I went through the pdf document and culled out the wind projects:
1.
Alberta Wind Energy Corp.
Wind Farm (50MW)
MD of Pincher Creek (NE of Pincher Creek)
$45.0
Proposed
2.
Finavera Renewables Inc.
‘Ghost Pine’ Wind Power Project (75MW)
Kneehill County
$150.0
Proposed for 2008 - 2009
3.
Greengate Power Corp.
‘Chigwell’ Wind Farm (150MW)
Lacombe County (E of Lacombe)
$300.0
Proposed.
Possible construction start late 2009 or early 2010.
4.
Greengate Power Corp.
Wind Farm (150MW)
Paintearth County (near Halkirk)
$300.0
Proposed
5.
Greengate Power Corp.
Wind Farm (150MW)
Ponoka County
$300.0
Proposed.
Possible construction start late 2009 or early 2010.
6.
Greengate Power Corp.
Wind Farm (100MW)
Red Deer County
(between Red Deer and Pine Lake)
$200.0
Proposed.
Development planned over three years.
7.
Greengate Power Corp.
‘Blackspring Ridge’
Wind Power Project (300MW)
Vulcan County
(near Carmangay)
$600.0
Proposed.
Planned completion by end of 2010.
8.
Naturener Energy Canada (formerly listed under West WindEau Inc.)
Wild Rose Wind Farm (200MW)
Cypress County (S of Irvine)
$360.0
2008-2009 Announced. Pending approvals.
9.
TransAlta Corp. (previously listed under Vision Quest Windelectric Ltd.)
‘Summerview’ Wind Farm phase 2 (60MW)
MD of Pincher Creek (near Summerview)
$123.0
2009 Announced. Planned construction start second quarter 2009.
10.
TransAlta Corp. (previously listed under Vision Quest Windpower)
‘Blue Trail’ Wind Power Project (75MW)
MD of Willow Creek (SW of Fort Macleod)
$115.0
2009 Announced. Pending approvals.
11.
Wind Power Inc.
‘Prairie Home’ Wind Farm (12MW)
County of Warner
$24.0
Proposed
12.
Wind Power Inc.
‘Castle Rock Ridge’ Wind PowerProject (115MW)
MD of Pincher Creek (N of Pincher Stn)
$115.0
Proposed.
Planned completion in 2009 (in conjunction with new transmission line).
13.
Windrise Power Inc.
Wind Farm (99MW)
Phases 1 and 2 MD of Willow Creek (S of Fort Macleod)
$200.0
2006-2008
Completed
TOTAL: $2.832 Billion
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Charles Morand 08.17.08 at 7:48 am
Aaron:
The two media articles you link to initially to suggest that a correlation exists between more wind turbines and increase bird deaths date back to 2006 and 2005, respectively. What’s more, neither cites the results of peer-reviewed, academic studies. Being trained as an economist, I’m sure you can appreciate the implications of inferring the existence of a pattern from 2 dated media articles.
I’ll admit that this is not something I follow particularly closely, but from my understanding wind turbines are no more lethal to birds than buildings or communication towers. As an Albertan, you also know that tailings ponds can be a pretty significant hazard for migratory birds.
If you are going to infer something like this, please make the effort of digging a little deeper to ascertain where scholarship is actually at on this.
Aaron 08.17.08 at 9:29 am
I know a wild goose chase when I see one. Ditto for tailings ponds.
What is the relevant metric - the number of bird deaths per billions of thermal units of energy? It’s a fair one - the bird cost per measure of human benefit.
Adverse impacts of wind power generation on collision behaviour of birds and anti-predator behaviour of squirrels
Effects of oil sands tailings compounds and harsh weather on mortality rates, growth and detoxification efforts in nestling tree swallows