Guidelines to protect wildlife from wind farms

Guidelines have been issued by the EU to protect wildlife from possible effects of windfarms. These guidelines are to be implemented in the EU Natura 2000 network of protected sites. Euroactiv has announced that the new guidelines have been issues specifically to protect vulnerable species and habitats in 26,000 sites accross Europe which comprise the EU Natura 2000 network. These guidelines are in agreement with the EU's Habitats and Birds Directives. It is important to recognise that wind farms are an important contributor to the EU's energy mix therefore manufacturers of wind turbines should be aware of these guidelines.

Some of the potential impacts on birds and bats are collisions, habitat loss, or the alteration of migration or foraging paths because of the turbines.

Wind Farms for Scotland

The Scotsman is running an article where Scottish people apparently favour wind farms over nuclear technology. EDP ran a survey in YouGov asking about preferred sources of technology and Scottish people favoured wind farms. More than eight out of ten Scots backed offshore wind farms and 69 per cent were in favour of onshore turbines. Similarly, when questioned about different energy sources for producing electricity, 74 per cent said their impression of wind farms was favourable, compared to just 43 per cent for nuclear.

However, the overall position in the UK concerning and active interest in climate change has significantly decreased from 80% in 2006 to 62% in 2010. the results are based on a sample of 4300 adults.