Wind Turbines Part II

Part II

Impacts on wildlife, livestock, and humans during construction.

Impacts to wildlife, livestock, and humans have a few areas to consider. These will probably be unique for the type of area the wind plant is to be situated upon. I am most familiar with the siting of a particular wind plant as it has direct impact upon land I own in Pendleton County, West VA. The land consists of limestone and sandstone formations. In the area of the site, Jack Mountain, most people rely upon springs for their water supply. Drilling wells is expensive and has a high rate of failed attempts due to the type of area. There are also extensive cave systems in the area, some are critical habitat for endangered and rare bat species.

Each turbine will be situated upon a massive foundation that will have to be blasted into the mountain peak. There will be 44 of these - actually the number is an approximation as a siting permit in West Va doesn't reflect my experiences on building a house in Maryland as far as structural details required are concerned. The blasting will propagate shock waves for miles in all directions. There is more than a reasonable chance this will collapse caves and springs, forever altering or destroying them. That will mean a loss of water supply for our cattle and our houses. We aren't the only ones potentially affected by this. The area produces a fair bit of beef and is home to a number of farm folk. It also means a loss of habitat and potential extinction of bat colonies. That in turn will wipe out a natural source of insect control. Which in turn can lead to an increase in the spread of insect borne diseases.

The site will have in addition to the turbines, access roadways, and miles of power lines to connect it to the electrical grid. This will serve to break large forested areas into smaller ones and create fragmented ecosystems where there was once a very large one. This serves to displace individuals and alter cover for prey species. Most ecosystems have been the result of millions of years of progress and sudden alterations such as this have potentially grave consequences.

Mountain forests absorb an astonishing quantity of rainfall preventing it from washing abruptly and violently into local rivers and streams which would subsequently wash into more distant waterways potentially causing serious flooding. Jack Mountain would serve to impact the Potomac River. This type of runoff and the blasting impacts mentioned above can serve to increase sediment in delicate ecosystems where various species of fish survive. More species at risk of elimination.

The loss of those fish has a potential secondary impact to the region. There are folks there that make a living off the tourism that fishing draws. There is a potential for the loss of jobs and income that will offset the jobs developers claim will arise due to the turbines.

A relatively minor point about the construction phase concerns the amount of CO2 emissions that will bring about on its own. Materials have to be sourced and shipped as well as altered from raw to finish product ready to be hauled to the site. Each turbine blade is 135 feet in length and the towers are 265 feet tall. Towers consist of 4 or 5 sections that look like huge pipes when on the back of the trucks. There are three blades for turbines. That means 7 or 8 oversized load trucks per turbine. A minimum of 308 big rigs just to deliver the goods. Each truck will also be leaving to go back home. Then there are the cranes and other heavy equipment involved in construction. The steel reinforced concrete foundations are also a source of CO2 as the manufacture of concrete releases CO2. BEFORE all this material gets hauled in the roads coming in need some looking at. Anyone familiar with the area understands the term switch back. There are a lot of switch backs on the roads leading to Jack Mountain. The rigs hauling 135 foot long turbine blades are going to be at least 150 feet long considering a tractor has to be attached to the trailer to actually pull it. The roads will have to be modified to allow trucks this size to haul in. Then the roads will have to be repaired after the job is done. More CO2.

The carbon debt generated by construction isn't a very strong argument. It does have some merit to the topic at hand though and as such I've covered it in perhaps a little more detail than it deserves. I'm attempting to stick to the outline I created in the first post on the matter.

Industry claims that this carbon deficit will be handled in the first year of operation. I've seen figures as short as three months. Details other than the above accounting of construction phase leave me wondering how accurate these claims are. This will have to wait for concepts to come in later parts of the discussion.

The above comments apply to the mentioned construction site. Offshore turbine construction poses serious threats to marine life when compared to operation of offshore turbines. Other onshore sites may have more or less severe impacts from construction based upon location.

Written By Dr. Jimmy Tragle