From STOP THESE THINGS

The wind industry is battling on all fronts, including mounting community outrage, driven not least by its wanton slaughter of eagles, whales and other magnificent creatures.

The outer tips of 60m wind turbine blades travelling at over 350kph make short work of avian predators, such as hawks, kites, falcons and eagles, including the rare and endangered Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle.

A short while back we covered a story exposing bogus claims made by wind power outfits about a whizbang technology – IdentiFlight – that was supposed to prevent the inevitable slaughter of eagles, hawks and kites etc by shutting off turbines as the birds approached them. It didn’t; and dozens of eagles have been sliced and diced, notwithstanding the supposedly wizard technology.

Meanwhile, a recent study on the issue shows that the wind industry – and the additional transmission lines necessary to support it – are wiping out Tasmania’s wedge-tailed eagles and vulnerable white-bellied sea eagles, as if the industry was being paid a bounty per kill.

Here’s a report from Matthew Denholm on the end of days for Tasmania’s rare and endangered eagles.

Tasmanian wind rush ‘pushes eagles to extinction’, says study
The Australian
Matthew Denholm
18 September 2023

Tasmanian wind farms and transmission lines have killed or injured 321 threatened eagles in 12 years, but the real figure is likely far higher, a new study finds.

The peer reviewed study, published in Australian Field Ornithology, uses data from wind farms, TasNetworks and eagle rescuers to identify the death or injury of 272 endangered Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagles and 49 vulnerable white-bellied sea eagles.

It found that from 2010 to 2022, 268 eagles were recorded killed and 53 injured by wind and transmission energy infrastructure, with the state’s four wind farms reporting 38 deaths, TasNetworks 139 deaths and raptor rescuers 91 deaths.

“The real number can only be higher, since surveying at wind farms is incomplete,” noted study author Gregory Pullen. “Specifically, it is only close to turbines, is periodic and does not involve all turbines or all habitat around each turbine, scrub often being excluded.

“In addition, carcasses are found by TasNetworks crews by coincidence during maintenance – not planned searches.”

Mr Pullen declared a membership of a group opposed to a central highlands wind farm proposal but said his data was entirely verifiable and the study peer reviewed before publication in the journal.

In Tasmania, up to 10 new wind farms have been proposed. Most are in part or fully contingent on the $3bn-plus Marinus Link – a proposed second interconnector between the island and Victoria to allow Tasmania to export wind and hydro energy to the mainland.

A North West Transmission project linked to Marinus would see 240km of new and upgraded lines installed across the state’s northwest.

Eagle experts have called for a moratorium on new wind development in the state until regulation and planning is improved, including declaration of “no go” areas for turbines in high-density eagle areas.

Mr Pullen’s study points to estimates from some of these experts that less than 1,000 Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagles remain and expresses concern the wind rush could push the iconic species close to extinction.

It says the federal government has set a 1pc trigger for migratory birds, with actions likely to destroy 1pc of a migratory bird population declared “important”.

“Currently, no similar policy guideline is available for resident bird species, despite mortality from wind farm development and operation being a threat to multiple species,” the paper argues.

Tasmania’s planning body is currently hearing appeals related to conditional approval for a 122 turbine wind farm on Robbins Island, in the state’s far northwest.

The state Environment Protection Authority approved the project but on condition it shut down for almost five months of the year to minimise impacts on the critically endangered orange bellied parrot.

“Industry-leading” bird collision avoidance technology employed at one Tasmanian wind farm, and increasingly relied on by regulators, was recently found to have failed to stop the deaths of at least eight eagles in less than four years.
The Australian