Proceedings from the State of the Science and Technology for Minimizing Impacts to Bats from Wind Energy

Abstract

Department of Energy (DOE) reports produced after 1991 and a growing number of pre-1991 documents are available free via www.OSTI.gov.

A framework for studying the effects of offshore wind energy development on birds and bats in the Eastern United States

“…Based in part on similar previous efforts for marine mammals and sea turtles in southern New England (Kraus et al, 2019), this workshop focused on: 1) reviewing the existing knowledge on the influence of OWED on birds and bats (drawn primarily from studies of the European offshore wind industry, as well as other industries where appropriate), 2) generating priority questions and hypotheses for the U.S. Atlantic (focused on the Mid-Atlantic Bight from Massachusetts to North Carolina), and 3) identifying potential study methods. The scientific research framework (hereafter 'framework') presented here builds on outputs from this workshop (NYSERDA New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, 2020) as well as efforts by related workgroups to prioritize research topics specific to understanding the cumulative effects of OWED on birds (Cook et al, 2021) and bats (Hein et al, 2021), with additional input from a small group of subject matter experts with taxonomic, methodological, and statistical expertise. For purposes of discussion, "offshore" areas are beyond 5.5 km from shore (e.g., waters in which offshore wind leasing is typically controlled by the federal government), while "nearshore" or "coastal" areas are within 5.5 km of shore (and are under state jurisdiction).…”

“…The bird and bat workgroups from the 2020 State of the Science Workshop on Wildlife and Offshore Wind Energy (Cook et al, 2021;Hein et al, 2021), which overlapped substantially in membership with that of the 2020 stakeholder workshop, met virtually several times in 2020-2021 to prioritize research topics specific to understanding the cumulative effects of OWED for birds and bats. These discussions were also influential in the refinement of this research framework and research questions.…”

Effective Stakeholder Engagement for Offshore Wind Energy Development: The State of New York's Fisheries and Environmental Technical Working Groups

“…Following plenary sessions, seven workgroups formed to identify key studies that could be conducted in the next 3-5 years to improve understanding of cumulative biological impacts as the OSW industry develops in the United States. These efforts resulted in seven workgroup reports (Carpenter et al 2021;Cook et al 2021;Degraer et al 2021;Gitschlag et al 2021;Hein et al 2021;Popper et al 2021;Southall et al 2021) and a scientific publication (Popper et al 2022). The workshops have also produced written proceedings Gulka 2020, 2022) to help foster wider public information sharing beyond workshop attendees.…”

Oceanic records of North American bats and implications for offshore wind energy development in the United States

“…At present, it is not possible to estimate fatality rates for bats at offshore facilities, and technologies to monitor activity and as- in North America concluded that bat activity rates do not predict fatality rates (Solick, Pham, et al, 2020), so offshore activity rates may not be a good indicator of risk. Lagerveld et al (2020) Acoustic deterrents generating high-frequency noise audible to bats have been found to reduce overall bat fatalities at land-based wind facilities in North America by up to 62% (Hein & Straw, 2021;Romano et al, 2019;Schirmacher, 2020;Weaver et al, 2020).…”

“…As such, acoustic deterrents by themselves do not appear to be a currently viable minimization strategy at offshore wind facilities. Other deterrents, such as illuminating turbines with dim ultraviolet light (Gorresen et al, 2015) and texture coating (Bennet & Hale, 2018), are currently being tested (Hein & Straw, 2021).…”