Public Story
The Aftermath of Wind Turbine Carcasses
Summary
Every year, the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research searches for bat fatalities at a wind farm near Berlin. The park contains old wind turbines, which lack a shutdown mechanism when bat activity is high. This results fatally for the flying mammals. Either the bats get directly caught in the wind turbines or suffer so-called barotrauma, whereby no harm is done externally, and the cause of death becomes apparent during an autopsy. They die due to internal bleeding.
Every year, scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin, Germany, search for bat carcasses at wind farms in the region of Brandenburg. Dr. Gudrun Wibbelt is the pathologist in chief of the institute and conducts autopsies on found bat carcasses to identify the cause of death. Many carcasses have been obviously hit by rotor blades. Bats see their environment by echolocation. With a speed of the tip of the blades above 100 mph, bats see the blades far too late and become fatalities. Moreover, Dr. Wibbelt observes even more cases of the so-called barotrauma. Due to the turbulence nearby the rotor blades and the pressure drop behind them, vessels of the lungs or heart of the bat burst and cause barotrauma. The animal dies from internal bleeding. In just two months of field study in 2021, during the highly critical migration phase of bats, the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research proved over 200 bat fatalities at a wind farm containing three wind turbines without curtailment.
Due to the ongoing climate crisis, green energy sources are an indispensable part of our environment. Wind turbines are an essential and efficient energy provider that secures humanity's future. The responsibility to use this energy source consciously and in an environmentally friendly way is inevitable. This includes a suitable location for the wind farm, with demonstrably little to no bat activity and shutdown requirements, such as curtailments. After all, green energy should really be green, and this includes wildlife conservation as well as environmental protection.
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