Wind Farms’ Impacts on Raptors: Predictors, Study Methods, and Mitigation Measures

Abstract

In order to slow down climate change, scientists recommend reducing the use of pollutant energy sources and developing renewable energies to both cope with excessive CO 2 emissions and decrease the use of fossil fuels. Among renewable energy sources, wind power is one of the most widespread worldwide. It is considered to have a lower environmental impact by reducing environmental pollution and water consumption. However, wind farms show potential adverse effects on the surrounding wildlife through two main disturbances: collision and displacement. In this paper, we first summarize factors likely to influence birds, and especially birds of prey collision on rotor turbines and effective displacement. This can help to outline which factors can better predict disturbance risks according to landscape characteristics, the species using the territory, or the wind facility features. In the second part, we discuss the experimental design, as well as the models used to assess disturbances. These experiments and analyses are necessary to identify the main disturbance predictors and quantify their relative contribution, which is crucial to establishing appropriate information-based mitigation measures that we detail in the last section.