|
Well, the data is definitely questionable - but unclear whether the Ornithological Society (or TreeHugger) cites unbiased studies, I'll give you that. Here is a Stanford Study with some sources: http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2016/ph240/white1/ What I like about it, is that it cites avian mortality in terms of Mortality per MW, (though one might suggest MWh is a better number, but we can extract that by assuming 20% Capacity Factor) which is the more relevant number than total deaths, because are going to see a lot more MW in the future, and presumably deaths will scale linearly. Total Average US was 4.12 Avian Deaths / MW. With California really leading the pack at a high 18.76 per MW. Presuming a 20% capacity factor, and assuming the united states uses about 10 million MwH/day, that means the United States will need 10 million * 5 / 24 MW in capacity, or about 2 million MW capacity (Sanity Check - 2 million MW = 2000 GW which is about 400 GW of nuclear power plants @ 100% Capacity factor - about 400 Reactors,- seems within the realm of reason given the US has about 100 Reactors right now), which means that on average, we'll see about 8 million bird deaths in the future because of wind farms. That compares to (in 2009) - 4 million due to communication towers, 14 million due to fossil fuels, 72 million due to Pesticide, 97 million due to Building Windows, and 110 million due to feral cats. |