Can Bats and Wind Power Get Along? (broadcast Friday, October 2nd, 2009)

Photo courtesy US EPA

New research finds that an adjustment to wind turbines could allow bats and wind power generation to better co-exist. Writing in in the Journal of Wildlife Management, biologists report that that slowing turbine blades to near motionless in low-wind periods significantly reduces the number of bat deaths. The researchers said that since few bats fly during the higher wind-speed periods of most interest to energy producers, the blades could be slowed during low wind-speed times when more bats are aloft at relatively low cost to power production. We'll talk about the report and the challenge of integrating wind power into the environment.