From KlimaNachrichten

By KlimaNachrichten Editor

A representative of Nabus in an interview with NDR Info. The Bat Night is about bats.
You can feel sorry for the man. He probably knows very well what bats and wind turbines all are about, but he has to bite his tongue.

The interests of the animals are either not taken into account at all or only partially taken into account in the planning of wind turbines, he explains.
He expects up to 10 animals to die as a result of the turbines but does not say whether this is an annual occurrence. Annually would be plausible.
After all, he points out the low reproduction rate, the animals only have 1-2 offspring per year. So, every bat killed is a significant loss.
Particularly affected are migratory animals that have travelled 1,000 – 2,000 km a year when they move to the summer or winter quarters. In Germany, they have many wind turbines to fly around on their way and there are to be even more turbines.

The NABU is in a dilemma, they know the situation there but have to put a good face on the bad game.

The number of animals killed is difficult to estimate.
The reason is that the animals suffer such large pressure differences when approaching the running turbines that their lungs are damaged.
So, the animals can continue to fly for a while before they die.
Since bats are very small, they are difficult to find after their death.
Scavengers do the rest.

The German Wildlife Foundation assumes 200,000 – 250,000.
There, particular attention is drawn to the expansion in forests, which will have a significant impact on the bats that live in forests.

The German Wildlife Foundation is in favor of the expansion of renewable energies. But the expansion of wind energy has become a danger to numerous wild animals.

It is necessary to weigh up all nature conservation concerns before wind farms are built. In Germany, for example, around 250,000 bats and thousands of birds of prey fall victim to wind turbines every year.

This is especially true in the forest. In the high altitudes suitable for wind farms, there are often valuable, old and near-natural forest stands that are a guarantor of biodiversity.

Germany urgently needs a uniform, high standard to integrate nature and species conservation into energy policy. We raise our voices – with statements to those responsible and contributions to the discussion.

The Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin (Leibniz-IZW) also estimates that 200,000 animals are killed (annually).

FRI:

It is a conflict-prone, emotionally charged topic that Voigt and his team have tackled in several studies: The researchers are investigating the death of bats from wind power and its consequences. The latter are said to be considerable, because food chains are interrupted and some pests can multiply strongly as a result. The scientists have published several articles on this topic in specialist journals.

It has long been known that wind turbines can be dangerous for some bat species. For this reason, the requirement has been in place for a good ten years that operations must be paused during certain times. The weeks between mid-July and mid-October, when bats are very active, are particularly critical, explains Voigt, “especially during warm nights with low wind speeds”. However, older turbines are exempt from the requirements – according to the Competence Centre for Nature Conservation and Energy Transition (KNE), they account for around 75 percent of onshore turbines.

The topic of bats is interesting in that it excludes the rather oblique statistics about birds killed by cats, window panes or cars. This is often used to relativize.
The comparison is roaring anyway, because garden birds and birds of prey are thrown into the same pot.
Anyone who cannot distinguish a run-over blackbird from a slain kite has no place in the discussion. And cats rarely bring home a black stork.

+++